Bill

Bill has numerous meanings in legal proceedings and otherwise, as:

1. Bill of Adventure, a signed declaration by a merchant that goods shipped in his name are the property of another person, for whom the goods are to be sold and whose "adventure" or speculation the business is.

2. Bill of Complaint was a statement in writing declaring a wrong the complainant has suffered from the defendant, or some fault which he has committed against the statute law. Bills of this kind were addressed to the Lord Chancellor or others having cognisance of the matter. They are now abolished (but in name only), all actions in the supreme Court being commenced by writ of summons followed in most cases by statement of claim.

3. Bill of Costs. The statement of details of a solicitor's charges against his client.

4. Bill of Exceptions to the ruling of a judge in his direction to the jury on a trial - either for mistake of law or fact.

5. Bill of Exchange, a common engagement for money given by one man to another.

6. Bill of Health, a certificate signed by a consul or other authority, and delivered to masters of ships clearing for foreign ports, as to the state of health of the port from which the ship starts. When no infectious disorder is known to prevail, the bill is said to be "clean"; when its presence is suspected but not ascertained, the bill is "suspected" or "touched"; when it is known to be prevalent the bill is "foul."

7. Bill of Mortality, a return of the deaths within a certain district in a given time, specifying the diseases and age at death. On such returns, especially the "Northampton tables," much of the actuarial calculations as to life insurance were originally based. The London "bills of mortality" begun in 1592, were continued till 1840, when they were superseded by the Registration Act. An allusion to them is preserved in the phrase "within the bills of mortality," an area which in the absence of municipal unity was taken as marking the extent of London.

8. Bill in Parliament. A draft of a new statute brought into either House of Parliament for adoption is termed "a Bill."

9. Bill of Particulars is a statement of details of plaintiff's demand in writing, its object being to furnish the defendant with a specific account of the plaintiff's claim against him.

10. Bill of Peace was brought for the purpose of establishing and perpetuating a right claimed by the plaintiff, of a nature to be controverted by different persons at different times and by different actions (the design being to secure repose from perpetual litigation). The practice in this respect is now regulated by the Judicature Acts.

11. Bill of Rights. The Act 1 William & Mary, stat. 2, c. 2, is so termed because it declares the true rights of British subjects.

12. Bill of Sale is a document given by one person to another assigning personal chattels or property by way of mortgage or absolutely.

13. Bill of Sight is given by Custom House authorities where the exact quantity or quality of imported goods is not known at the time. It must be perfected in three days.

14. Bill of Victualling, a list of necessary ships' stores subject to duty and therefore shipped out of bond. Its object is to prevent smuggling, and it is made out by the master and countersigned by the Collector of Customs. Stores not on it are liable to destruction, under the Merchant Shipping Act of 1883.

15. True Bill. In criminal matters when a grand jury have decided upon any presentment or indictment they write on it the words "billa vera," ie. a "true bill."