DEODAND (deodanduns, what is due to God). The word deodand expresses the notion of a thing forfeited, because it has been the immediate cause of death. The thing forfeited is sometimes called deodand, which signifies any personal chattel which is the immediate cause of the death of a human being. In England deodands are forfeited to the king, to be applied to pious uses and distributed in alms by his high almoner ; but the crown most frequently granted the right to deo dands, within certain limits, either to in dividuals for an estate of inheritance or as annexed to lands, in virtue of which grants they are now claimed.
Blackstone supposes " that the custom was originally designed in the blind days of popery as an expiation for the souls of such as were snatched away by sudden death, and for that purpose ought pro perly to have been given to holy church, in the same manner as the apparel of a stranger who was found dead was applied to purchase masses for his soul." But it is perhaps more reasonable to imagine that it was a civil institution intended to produce care and caution on the part of the owners of cattle and goods, and that the subsequent application of the things forfeited has been mistaken for the origin of the law itself. The custom was also a part of the Mosaic Law. (Exod. xxi. 28.) In England it has prevailed from the earliest period, and there is no trace of the deodands having been applied to pions uses. The custom is thus mentioned by Bracton, one of the earliest writers on English law, who lived in the reign of Henry III.: Omnia gum movent ad mor tem aunt deodanda,' which is Englishe4 in the Termes de la Ley,' What moves to death, or killed the dead, Is deodand, and forfeited.
A different rule prevails when the thing which occasions accidental death is at rest, and is composed of several parts.
For instance, if a man, in climbing up the wheel of a cart, falls and is killed, the wheel only is forfeited ; but if the cart is driven against the man, and the wheel goes over and kills him, not only the wheel but the cart and its loading are for feited. In cases of homicide, the instru ment of death is forfeited, even if it be longs to an innocent party, for which reason, in all indictments for homicide, a value is placed on the weapon used in killing, that the king or his grantee may claim the deodand, for it is no deodand unless it be presented by a jury of twelve men. Accordingly, when the coroner's jury find the cause of death, they ought also to find the value of the thing which was the immediate cause of a death. It is common for the coroner's juries to award a given amount as a deodand less than the value of the chattel ; and though it is said that this finding is hardly war rantable by law, yet the Court of King's Bench has usually refused to interfere on behalf of the lord of the franchise to assist his claim.
The general role, then, is, that all personal chattels in motion which kill a human being are forfeited. But the subject has ceased to be of interest since 1846, the 9 & 10 Vict. c. 62 declaring that the law respecting chattels which have moved to or caused the death of man, and respecting deodands, is unrea sonable and inconvenient ; and subse quent to September I, 1846, it is enacted that there shall be no forfeiture of any chattel in respect of homicide, nor in quiries by any coroner's inquisition rela tive to deodands.