LEVEE
nal When these causes were heard, this sail was raised, and suitors came directly to the court, and their causes were heard im- mediately. As apnlied to maritime courts. its meaning is that causes should be heard without delay. These causes require dispatch, and a delay amounts practically to a denial of justice. (see God. 11, 4, 5.) Bou- vier.
LEVEE. An embankment or artificial mound of earth construc-ted along the margin of a river, to confine the stream to its naturai channel or prevent inundation or oveifiow. State v. New Orleans & N E. R. Co., 42 La. Ann. 13 , 7 South. 226; Royse v. Evansville & T. H. R. Co., 160 Ind. 592. 67 N. E. 446. Also (probably by an extension of the foregoing meaning) a landing place on a river or lake: a place on a river or other navigable water for iading and un- larilng goods and for the reception and discharge of passengers to and from vesscls lying in the contiguous waters, which may be either a wharf or pier or the natural bank. See Cotfin v. Portland (C. C.) 27 Fed. 415; St. Paul v. Railroad Co., 63 Minn. 330, 68 N. W. 458, 34 L. R. A. 184; Napa v. How- land, 87 Cal. S4, 25 Pap. 247.
—Levee district. A municipal subdivision of a state (which may or may not be a public corporation) organized for the purpose, and charged with the duty, of constructing and maintaining such levees within its territorial limits as are to be built and kept up at public expense and for the general public benefit. See I"el:plg_IGv. Levee Dist. No. 6, 131 Cal. 30, 63
L]-:V'IA.'BI.E. That which may be levied. That which is a proper or permissible sub- ject for a levy; as, a "leviable interest" in land See Bray v. Iiagsdale, 53 l\Io. 172.
LEVIR. In Roman law. A hushnndffl brother: a wii'e's lirother-in-law. Calvin.
LEVIS. Lat. Light; slight; trifling. LGlJiS' culpa, slight fault or ncglect. LPm‘a- .5-inia wipe, the slightest neglect Levis no- ia, a slight mark or brand. See Brand v. Schenectady & T. R. Co., 8 Barb. (N. Y_) 378.
LEVITICAI. DEGREES. Degrees of kindred within which persons are prohibited to marry. They are set forth in the eighteenth chapter of Leviticus.
LEVY, 1:. To raise; execute; exact; collect; gather; take up: seize. Thus, to levy (raise or collect) a tax: to levy (raise or set up) a nuisance: to levy (acknowledge) a fine; to levy (inaugurate) war; to levy an execution, 6. e.. to levy or collect a sum of money on an execution.
In reference to taxation, the word "ievy" is used in two different senses. In the first place, and more properly, it means to lay nr impose a tax. This is a legislative function. and includes a determination that a tax shall
714
LEVYING WAR
be imposed, and also the ascertainment of the amount necessary or desirable to be raised, the amount or rate to be imposed, and the subjects or persons to contiibute to the tax. The ob- ligation resulting from a "levy" in this sense falls upon the collective body of taxpayers or the community, not (as yet) upon individniils. But in another sense, it means the imposition _of the tax directly upon the person or property involved (probably by analogy to the "levy-" of an execution or other writ), and includes the assessment of persons or properly, the entering of their several dues on the tax books, and the entire process of collecting the taxes. See State v. Lakeside Land Co.. 71 Minn. 233. 73 N. W. 97 Morton v. Comptroller General. 4 Rich ES. C.) 430; Eineric v. Alvarado. (‘A Cal. 529.
Pac. 418: Moors v. Foote. 32 Miss. 479; Valle v. Fargo, 1 Mo. App. 347: Perry Cuunty v. Railroad Co., 58 Ala. 5559: Rhonda v. Given, 5 Iloust. (Dcl.) 186; U. S. v. Port of Mobile (C. C.) 12 Fed. 770.
LEVY. n. In practice. A seizure; the
raising of the money for which an execution has been issued. —-Equitable levy. The lien in equity created by the filing of a creditors’ bill to subject real property of the debtor, and of a lis pendens, is sometimes so called. Miller v. Sherry, 2 Wall. 249. 1'i'_L. Ed. 8'37: Mandeville v. Campbell, 45 App. Div. 512, 61 N. Y. Supp. 443; George v. Railroad Co. (0. C.) 44 Fed. 120.
LEVY COURT. A court formerly ex- isting in the District of Columbia. It was a body charged with the administration of the ministerial and financial duties of Washing- ton county. It was charged with the duty of laying out and repairing roads. buildtng bridges, providing poor-houses. laying and collecting the taxes necessary to enable it to discharge these and other duties, and to pay the other expenses of the county. It had capacity to make contracts in reference to any of these matters, and to raise money to meet such contracts. It had perpetual succession, and its functions were those which. in the several states, are performed hy "county commissioners," "overseers of the poor," "couii1;_v supervisors," and similar bod- ies with other designations. Levy Court 1;. Coroner, 2 ‘Vail. 507, 17 L. Ed. 851.
In Delaware, the "levy court" is an ad- niinistrative board elected and organized in each county. composed of from five to thirteen "commissioners," who, in respect to taxation. perform the functions of a hoard of equalimtion and review and also of a board to supervise the assessors and collectors and audit and adiust their accounts, and who also have ceitain powers and special duties in respect to the administration of the poor laws, the system of public roads and the officers in charge of them, the care of insane pnupers and convicts, the government and administration of jails, school (listriots, and various other matters of local concern. See Rev. St. Del 1893. c. 8-. Mealw v. Buckingham. 6 Del. Ch. 3.36. 22 Atl. 357.
LEVYING WAR. In criminal law. The assembling of a body of men for the purpose of etifecting by force a truasonable object:
