BILAN. A term used in Louisiana, derived from the French. A book in which bankers, merchants, and traders write a statement of all they owe and all that is due them; a balance-sheet. See Dauphin v. Soulie, 3 Mart. (N. S.) 446.
BILANCIIS DEFERENDIS. In English law. An obsolete writ addressed to a corporation for the carrying of weights to such a haven, there to weigh the wool anciently licensed for transportation. Reg. Orig. 270.
BILATERAL CONTRACT. A term, used originally in the civil law, but now generally adopted, denoting a contract in which both the contracting parties are bound to fulfill obligations reciprocally towards each other; as a contract of sale, where one becomes bound to deliver the thing sold, and the other to pay the price of it. Montpelier Seminary v. Smith, 69 Vt. 382, 38 Atl. 68.
"Every convention properly so called consists of a promise or mutual promises proffered and accepted. Where one only of the agreeing parties gives a promise, the convention is said to be 'unilateral.' Wherever mutual promises are proffered and accepted, there are, in strictness, two or more conventions. But where the performance of either of the promises is made to depend on the performance of the other, the several conventions are commonly deemed one convention, and the convention is then said to be 'bilateral.' " Aust. Jur. § 308.
BILGED. In admiralty law and marine insurance. That state or condition of a vessel in which water is freely admitted through holes and breaches made in the planks of the bottom, occasioned by injuries, whether the ship's timbers are broken or not. Peele v. Insurance Co., 3 Mason, 27, 39, 19 Fed. Cas. 103.
BILINE. A word used by Britton in the sense of "collateral." En line biline, in the collateral line. Britt. c. 119.
BILINGUIS. Of a double language or tongue; that can speak two languages. A term applied in the old books to a jury composed partly of Englishmen and partly of foreigners, which, by the English law, an alien party to a suit is, in certain cases, entitled to; more commonly called a "jury de medictate linguæ." 3 Bl. Comm. 360; 4 Steph. Comm. 422.
BILL. A formal declaration, complaint, or statement of particular things in writing. As a legal term, this word has many meanings and applications, the more important of which are enumerated below.
1. A formal written statement of complaint to a court of justice.
In the ancient practice of the court of king's bench, the usual and orderly method of beginning an action was by a bill, or original hill, or plaint. This was a written statement of the plaintiff's cause of action, like a declaration or complaint, and always alleged a trespass as the ground of it, in order to give the court jurisdiction. 3 Bl. Comm. 43.
In Scotch law, every summary application in writing, by way of petition to the Court of Session, is called a "bill." Cent. Dict.
—Bill chamber. In Scotch law. A department of the court of session in which petitions for suspension, interdict, etc., are entertained. It is equivalent to sittings in chambers in the English and American practice. Paters. Comp.—Bill of privilege. In old English law. A method of proceeding against attorneys and officers of the court not liable to arrcet. 3 Bl. Comm. 289.—Bill of proof. In English practice. The name given, in the mayer's court of London, to a specie of intervention by a third person laying claim to the subject-matter in dispute between the parties to a suit.
2. A species of writ; a formal written declaration by a court to its officers, in the nature of process.
—Bill of Middlesex. An old form of process similar to a capias, issued out of the court of king's bench in personal actions, directed to the sheriff of the county of Middlesex, (hence the name,) and commanding him to take the defendant and have him before the king at Westminster on a day named, to answer the plaintiff's complaint. State v. Mathews, 2 Brev. (S. C.) 83; Sims v. Alderson, 8 Leigh (Va.) 484.
3. A formal written petition to a superior court for action to be taken in a cause already determined, or a record or certified account of the proceedings in such action or some portion thereof, accompanying such a petition.
—Bill of advocation. In Scotch practice. A bill by which the judgment of an inferior court is appealed from, or brought under review of a superior. Bell.—Bill of certiorari. A bill, the object of which is to remove a suit in equity from some inferior court to the court of chancery, or some other superior court of equity, on account of some alleged incompetency of the inferior court, or some injustice in its proceedings. Story, Eq. Pl. (5th Ed.) § 298.—Bill of exceptions. A formal statement in writing of the objections or exceptions taken by a party during the trial of a cause to the decisions, rulings, or instructions of the trial judge, stating the objection, with the facts and circumstances on which it is founded, and, in order to attest its accuracy, signed and sealed by the judge; the object being to put the controverted rulings or decisions upon the record for the information of the appellate court. Ex parte Crane, 5 Pet. 193, 8 L. Ed. 92; Galvin v. State, 56 Ind. 56; Coxe v. Field, 13 N. J. Law, 218; Sackett v. McCord, 23 Ala. 854.
4. In equity practice. A formal written complaint, in the nature of a petition, addressed by a suitor in chancery to the chancellor or to a court of equity or a court having equitable jurisdiction, showing the names of the parties, stating the facts which make up the case and the complainant's allegations, averring that the acts disclosed are contrary to equity, and praying for process and for specific relief, or for such relief as the circumstances demand. U. S. v. Ambrose, 108 U. S. 336, 2 Sup. Ct. 682, 27 L. Ed. 746; Feeney v. Howard, 79 Cal. 525, 21
