JUST. This word is frequently used in legal phraseology in combination with other words, such as reasonable, equitable, con venient.
Where, as a foundation for an attach ment, an affidavit was required that the plaintiff's claim is just, it is not sufficient if it does not state positively, but only inferen tially, that his claim is just, and it does not amount to the same thing to say that plaintiff "ought justly to recover the amount," or that •"said several sums are justly due ;" Robinson v. Burton, 5 Kan. 293.
In the English Traffic Act, in the phrase "just and reasonable," it was said to mean, to the advantage of the customer ; 51 L. J. (4. B. 601.
Where conditions of traffic are to be just and reasonable, the reasonableness is a question of law, not of fact ; 18 C. B. 805, 829.
It is a "just and reasonable" provision in by-laws to disqualify by reason of bankrupt cy or notorious insolvency; 10 H. L. Cas. 404.
An agreement to pay what an individual (who was a taxing officer of the court of chancery) should say was a just and reason able compensation for the services rendered by the coinplainant's solicitor in a suit com menced in that court, and settled before de cree, obliges the party so agreeing to pay the bill of costs regularly taxed by the individual named in the agreement ; Culley v. Harden bergh, 1 Den. (N. Y.) 508. The terms "just and reasonable," as employed by the legisla ture in the Practice Act, obviously have ref erence to the rules of practice then existing by the common law, and contemplate no other or different terms than would be just and reasonable, as judged of by that practice ; Empire Fire Ins. Co. v. Trust Co., 1 Ill. App. 391.
The words "just and fair" within the mean ing of the New York statute, authorizing the imprisonment of a fraudulent debtor, were thus construed: "Where the debtor has pro cured from the creditor, at whose suit he is imprisoned, property by fraud, even if he has spent the proceeds in any way that would be unobjectionable,, if they were his own, and if by loss or accident he is deprived of them, his proceedings are not just and fair, and where the debtor has combined or united with others to fraudulently obtain the prop erty of the creditor, at whose suit he is im prisoned, even if such others got the proceeds of the fraud, and he kept none, his proeeed ings are not 'just and fair' within the mean ing of the statute," authorizing the examina tion of an imprisoned debtor, in proceedings for his discharge from imprisonment, if it appear that his proceedings have not been "just and fair" towards the creditor under whose judgment he is imprisoned ; In re Roberts, 59 How. Pr. (N. Y.) 136 ; In re Pluck,
id. 145.
In the English Companies Act, 1862, it is "just and equitable" to wind up a company when the Whole substratum of the business which was the object of the company had become strictly impossible ; 1 Cox 213 ; 3 K. & J. 78 ; 20 Ch. Div. 169.
In the phrase a "just cause" lor a court to do anything, the word just "does not add much weight, though it may add a little; it means some substantial reason must be shown ;" Jessel, M. R., in 21 Ch. Div. 397.
To be "just and convenient" to appoint a receiver or grant an injunction or mandamus, respect must be given to what is just ac cording to settled principles, as well as to what is convenient ; 9 Ch. Div. 89.
"All my just debts" includes all debts ; Wms. Ex. 1719 ; L. R. 4 H. L. 506. A direc tion to pay debts or just debts included a mortgage debt in exoneration of the prop erty, but 30 and 31 Viet. c. 69, § 1, did away with that reasoning ; 9 Ch. Div. 12, per Jes sel, M. R. A direction to pay just debts did not include a note of the testator made be fore he was of age, and therefore voidable ; Smith v. Mayo, 9 Mass. 62, 6 Am. Dec. 28. See also Smith v. Porter, 1 ,Binn. (Pa.) 209 ; Culley v. Hardenbergh, 1 Den. (N. Y.) 508 ; Martin v. Gage, 9 N. Y. 398.