Legal Abbreviations, Historical 3

• Verbally (or in writing not under seal) evidence may be heard to show the meaning of an abbreviation or the particular word for which it stands in a written instrument ; but not to show the intention with which it was used.
• In an action upon a stock contract, the evidence of stockbrokers may be properly received to explain abbreviations.
• County officers have been allowed to explain abbreviations in a tax deed.
• Where the memorandum of a notary public of a protest of a note and of notice is so abbreviated and elliptical as to be unintelligible, an expert may be called to prove the meaning of the words.
• The letters I.O.U. are a valid acknowledgment of indebtedness. The production of an I.O.U. is prima facie evidence of an account stated.
• It is necessary, in order to introduce Verbally (or in writing not under seal) proof as to what sense letters which have not acquired a legal signification are used in a particular trade, to aver in the declaration that they are so used.
• The letters C.O.D. placed in a written contract are the initials of the words “collect on delivery,”and this undertaking by these letters is assumed and a strict performance thereof may be exacted.
• The letters C.O.D. followed by an amount in dollars have come to be very well understood by the community and the public, but perhaps could not without the aid of extrinsic evidence be read and interpreted by the courts. It is certainly competent to explain their use in connection with a contract, not inconsistent with the terms thereof.
• After the letters f. o. b. in a contract have been explained to mean “free on board,”there is nothing ambiguous, and consequently no room for Verbally (or in writing not under seal) evidence.

• A judgment is void for uncertainty in which the amount is expressed only in numerals and with nothing to indicate what they represent, and in which the land is described as ”S.N.E.”of a designated section, town, and range.
• A judgment obtained before a magistrate against a defendant by a name in which an initial letter is used instead of his Christianname is irregular but not void.

• Initials preceding a surname are always understood to be the initials of a name and not the abbreviation of a title, unless proved the latter.
• Where one name is an abbreviation of another, but both are taken promiscuously and according to common usage to be the same, though differing in sound, the use of the one for the other is not a material misnomer.””Jr.”is no part of a person’sname.”Th.”means the same as Thomas.(See Names, Historical.)

• A court sitting as a jury has a right to infer from the face of a note payable “at the Br. at Fort Wayne of the Bk. of the State of Indiana”that the branch at Fort Wayne of the Bank of the State of Indiana was intended.
• The words “Citz. Bank”in a note were held to be plainly an abbreviation of “Citizens’ Bank.”
• A note made payable at a certain place, “Ind.”, having been sued on, held, the courts and juries of Indiana may well know from their general information that the abbreviation “Ind.”as applied to a place means Indiana.
• “Com.”and “Co.”are well-understood abbreviations of “company,”when used as part of the name of a commercial firm, and an endorsement “Sturges & Co.”on a note payable to “Sturges & Com.”is no variance.
• Held, not to be error to admit a note sued on in evidence, because the amount is written “four hund and two dollars.”
• The word “cash”affixed to the name of a payee indicates that the note is payable to the bank, and the bank may sue thereon as payee, the agent being a party to the action.
• The words “ten pe. cen.”in a promissory note have been held to have a meaning understood by everybody, and make the note bear interest at ten per cent.
• No force can be conceded in an objection to the word “Feb’y” in a note.
• The terms “Ill. cy.,”on a certificate of deposit given by Chicago bankers, construed to mean, as applied to the payment of the certificate, that the same might be paid in Bills of banks which at the time of payment were received and passed as ordinary currency in Illinois, but not in the same Bills which were received.

• Except when it is otherwise specially prescribed by law, a writ or other process must be in the name of the people of the State; and each writ, process, record, pleading, or other proceeding in a court or before an officer must be in the English language, and, unless it is oral, made out on paper or parchment, in a fair legible character, in words at length and not abbreviated.
• But the proper known names of process and technical words may be expressed in appropriate language as now is and heretofore has been customary; such abbreviations as are now commonly employed in the English language may be used, and numbers may be expressed by Arabic figures or Roman numerals in the customary manner.
• If a variance is an abbreviation, it is immaterial, if the jury find it to mean the same thing.
• The revised statutes of New York provide that no indictment shall be deemed invalid or the trial affected by any misstatement of the defendant’s title, occupation, estate, or degree, when the defendant shall not be misled or prejudiced by such misstatement, or by reason of any other defect or imperfection in matters of form which shall not tend to the prejudice of the defendant.
• Averments may be made in a declaration explaining abbreviations used in the written instrument declared on.
• The use of “Geo.”instead of George, as written in an indictment, held not to be a material variance^ or proof of allegation of “U. States”by United States.
• The abbreviation, in a declaration, “Damages One thous. Dollars,”is not error, though not a commendable practice.
• The use of “L. S.”for place of seal, “vs.”for versus or against, and “&c.”does not vitiate a plea. Such terms are English.
• The letters L. S. may be taken also to indicate a seal. Ads. for adsectam, with the names of parties properly placed, indicates the same as vs.
• A bill filed by Orrin P. Ramsdell to foreclose a mortgage given to O. P. Ramsdell being taken as confessed against defendant, who were the mortgagors, it must be assumed that defendants admit the execution, the identity of the parties being open to proof, if questioned.
• In a complaint for a criminal charge before a magistrate, the year may be stated in words following the letters “A. D.,”and the sign “&”express’ the word “and.”
• In an action for assault, battery, and imprisonment, a plea answering the “assault, &c., and imprisonment”is broad enough, the &c. including the battery.
• A plea of misnomer to a declaration against Geo. Turner, that his Christian name was George, not Geo., was held good on demurrer.
• In England, however, the describing in a writ and declaration a party to a suit by the initials of his Christian name must be treated as a misnomer.

Residence is sufficiently stated by double commas under a place already stated, where articles of association require subscribers’ residences to be stated with their subscriptions.

• The return of service of summons is, sufficient, though the Christian name of defendant is abbreviated therein.
• If an abbreviation taken in connection with the remainder of the writing and subject-matter can be clearly understood and not be ambiguous, it must have the same effect as if the words were written in full. Where a return of a sheriff ran, “by delivering a true copy of within writ to Dr. Peter-Brugman, president of the O. F. B. A.,”and on examination of the writ it appeared that the letters could refer to the Odd Fellows’ Building Association, held, that there was no ambiguity.

If a testator introduce in his will certain terms or characters which are not understood by the court, recourse may be had to persons conversant with the subject for the purpose of deciphering the characters.

• Legal Abbreviations, Historical
• Legal Abbreviations, Historical 2
• Common legal abbreviations
• Ambiguity, Historical
• Legal Abbreviations and Acronyms
• Florida: Abbreviations for law journals
• Law Journals Abbreviations and Acronyms
• Legal Citation
• Name, Historical
• Elections, Historical
• Acknowlegments, Historical

• Prince, Mary Miles. Bieber’s Dictionary of Legal Abbreviations. 6th ed. Buffalo, NY: Hein, 2009.
• Trinxet, Salvador. Template:Trinxet Dictionary of Legal Abbreviations and Acronyms Series. A Law Reference Collection, 2011
• Trinxet, Salvador. Trinxet Reverse Dictionary of Legal Abbreviations and Acronyms, 2011
• Raistrick, Donald. Index to Legal Citations and Abbreviations. 3rd ed. London: Sweet & Maxwell, 2008. This book focuses more on British and other foreign/international abbreviations.
• Kavass, World Dictionary of Legal Abbreviations

Author: international

Mentioned in these Entries

Bills, Common legal abbreviations, Florida: Abbreviations for law journals, French Legal Abbreviations, Law Journals Abbreviations and Acronyms, Legal Abbreviations and Acronyms, Legal Abbreviations, Historical 2, Legal Abbreviations, Historical, Legal Citation, Rights and the Law Classification, Historical.