BENEFICIO PRIMA [ECCLESIASTICO HABENDO.] In English law. An ancient writ, which was addressed by the king to the lord chancellor, to bestow the benefice that should first fall in the royal gift, above or under a specified value, upon a person named therein. Reg. Orig. 307.
BENEFICIUM. In early feudal law. A benefice; a permanent stipendiary estate; the same with what was afterwards called a "fief," "feud," or "fee." 3 Steph. Comm. 77, note i; Spelman.
In the civil law. A benefit or favor; any particular privilege. Dig. 1, 4, 3: Cod. 7, 71; Mackeld. Rom. Law, § 196.
A general term applied to ecclesiastical livings. 4 Bl. Comm. 107; Cowell.
—Beneficium abstinendi. In Roman law. The power of an heir to abstain from accepting the inheritance. Sandars, Just. Inst. (5th Ed.) 214.—Beneficium cedendarum actionum. In Roman law. The privilege by which a surety could, before paying the creditor, compel him to make over to him the actions which belonged to the stipulator, so as to avail himself of them. Sandars, Just. Inst. (5th Ed.) 332, 351.—Beneficium clericale. Benefit of clergy. See Benefit.—Beneficium competentiæ. In Scotch law. The privilege of competency. A privilege which the grantor of a gratuitous obligation was entitled to, by which he might retain sufficient for his subsistence, if, before fulfilling the obligation, he was reduced to indigence. Bell. In the civil law. The right which an insolvent debtor had, among the Romans, on making cession of his property for the benefit of his creditors, to retain what was required for him to live honestly according to his condition. 7 Toullier, n. 258.—Beneficium divisionis. In civil and Scotch law. The privilege of one of several co-sureties (cautioners) to insist upon paying only his pro rata share of the debt. Bell.—Beneficium inventarii. See Benefit.—Beneficium ordinis. In civil and Scotch law. The privilege of order. The privilege of a surety to require that the creditor should first proceed against the principal and exhaust his remedy against him, before resorting to the surety. Bell.—Beneficium separationis. In the civil law. The right to have the goods of an heir separated from those of the testator in favor of creditors.
Beneficium non datum nisi propter officium. Hob. 148. A remuneration [is] not given, unless on account of a duty performed.
BENEFIT. Advantage; profit; privilege. Fitch v. Bates, 11 Barb. (N. Y.) 473; Synod of Dakota v. State, 2 S. D. 366, 50 N. W. 632, 14 L. R. A. 418; Winthrop Co. v. Clinton, 196 Pa. 472, 46 Atl. 435, 79 Am. St. Rep. 729.
In the law of eminent domain, it is a rule that, in assessing damages for private property taken or injured for public use, "special benefit" may be set off against the amount of damage found, but not "general benefits." Within the meaning of this rule, general benefits are such as accrue to the community at large to the vicinage, or to all property similarly situated with reference to the work or improvement in question; while special benefits are such as accrue directly and solely to the owner of the land in question and not to others. Little Miami R. Co. v. Collett, 6 Ohio St. 182; St. Louis, etc., Ry. Co. v. Fowler, 142 Mo. 670, 44 S. W. 771; Gray v. Manhattan Ry. Co., 16 Daly, 510, 12 N. Y. Supp. 542; Barr v. Omaha, 42 Neb. 341, 60 N. W. 591.
—Benefit building society. The original name for what is now more commonly called a "building society," (q. v.)—Benefit of cession. In the civil law. The release of a debtor from future imprisonment for his debts, which the law operates in his favor upon the surrender of his property for the benefit of his creditors. Poth. Proc. Civil, pt. 5, c. 2, § 1.—Benefit of clergy. In its original sense, the phrase denoted the exemption which was accorded to clergymen from the jurisdiction of the secular courts, or from arrest or attachment on criminal process issuing from those courts in certain particular cases. Afterwards, it meant a privilege of exemption from the punishment of death accorded to such persons as were clerks, or who could read. This privilege of exemption from capital punishment was anciently allowed to clergymen only, but afterwards to all who were connected with the church, even to its most subordinate officers, and at a still later time to all persons who could read, (then called "clerks,") whether ecclesiastics or laymen. It does not appear to have been extended to cases of high treason, nor did it apply to mere misdemeanors. The privilege was claimed after the person's conviction, by a species of motion in arrest of judgment, technically called "praying his clergy." As a means of testing his clerical character, he was given a psalm to read, (usually, or always, the fifty-first,) and, upon his reading it correctly, he was turned over to the ecclesiastical courts, to be tried by the bishop or a jury of twelve clerks. These heard him on oath, with his witnesses and compurgators, who attested their belief in his innocence. This privilege operated greatly to mitigate the extreme rigor of the criminal laws, but was found to involve such gross abuses that parliament began to enact that certain crimes should be felonies "without benefit of clergy," and finally, by St. 7 Geo. IV. c. 28, § 6, it was altogether abolished. The act of congress of April 30, 1790, § 30, provided that there should be no benefit of clergy for any capital crime against the United States, and, if this privilege formed a part of the common law of the several states before the Revolution, it no longer exists.—Benefit of discussion. In the civil law. The right which a surety has to cause the property of the principal debtor to be applied in satisfaction of the obligation in the first instance. Civ. Code La. arts 3014–3020. In Scotch law. That whereby the antecedent heir, such as the heir of line in a pursuit against the heir of tailzie, etc., must be first pursued to fulfill the defunct's deeds and pay his debts. This benefit is likewise competent in many cases to cautioners.—Benefit of division. Same as beneficium divisionis, (q. v.)—Benefit of inventory. In the civil law. The privilege which the heir obtains of being liable for the charges and debts of the succession, only to the value of the effects of the succession, by causing an inventory of these effects within the time and manner prescribed by law. Civil Code La. art. 1032.—Benefit societies. Under this and several similar names, in various states, corporations exist to receive periodical payments from members, and hold them as a fund to be loaned or given to members needing pecuniary relief. Such are beneficial societies of Maryland, fund associations of Missouri, loan and fund associations of Massachusetts, mechanics' associations of Michigan, protection societies of New Jersey. Friendly societies in Great Britain are a still more extensive and important species belonging to this class. Comm. v. Equitable Ben. Ass'n, 137 Pa. 412, 18 Atl. 1112; Com. v. Aid Ass'n, 94 Pa. 489.
