OPUS MAGNIFICIIIM or IVIANI FICIUM (from Lat. opus, work, manus, hand). In Old English Law. Manual labor. Fleta, 1. 2, c. 48, 3.
OR. A disjunctiveparticle.
2. As a particle, or is often construed and.
and ancl construed or, to further the intent of the parties, in legacies, devises;. deeds, bonds, and writings. 3 Gill, Md. 492 ; 7 id. 197 ; 1 Call, Va. 212 ; .2 Roper, Leg. text and notes of American editor 1400, 1405 ; 3 Greenleaf, Ev. tit. 38, c. 9, 18, note, and text, 25 ; 1 Jarman, Wills, c. 17, p. 427, 2d ed., and cases cited in Perk. note.; 1 Wil liams, Ex. 932, notes k, 1; 5 Coke, 112 a; Croke Jac. 322 ; 4 Zabr. N. J. 686 ; 3 Term, 470.
3. Where an indictment is in the alterna tive, as forged or caused to be forged, it is bad for uncertainty. 2 Strange, 900 ; Hardw. 370 ; 1 Younge & J. Exch. 22. But a descrip tion of a horse as of a brown or bay color, in an indictment for larceny of such horse, is good, 13 Vt. 687 ; and so an indictment describing a nuisance as in the highway or road. 1 Dail. Penn. 150. See 28 Vt. 583 ; 24 Conn. 286 ; 13 Ark. 397.
When the word or in a statute is used in the sense of to wit, that is, in explanation of what precedes, and making it signify the same thing, a complaint or indictment which adopts the words of the statute is well framed.
Thus, it was held that an- indictment was sufficient which alleged that the defendant had in his custody and possession ten counter feit bank-bills or promissory notes, payable to the bearer thereof, and purporting to he signed in behalf of the president and direct ors of the Union Bank, knowing them to be counterfeit, and with intent to utter and pass them, and thereby to injure and defraud the said president and directors ; it beiiig mani fest from the statute on which the indictment was framed, that promissory ncte was used merely as explanatory of bank-bill, and meant the same thing. 8 Mass. 59 ; 2 Gray, Mass. 502.
In general, see Croke Eliz. 832 ; 27 Hen. VIII. 18 b ; Hardw. 91, 94 ; 1 Ventr. 148 ; 2 Sandf. N. Y. 369 ; 1 Jones, No. C. 309 ; 3 Atk. Ch. 291, ; 3 Term, 470 ; 6 id. 34 ; 12 East, 288 ; 1 Bingh.500 ; 2 Drur. & Warr. 471 ; 7 Jur. 570.