MOORING. In Maritime Law. The se curing of a vessel by a hawser or chain, or otherwise, to the shore, or to the bottom by a cable and anchor. The being "moored in safety," under a policy of insurance, is being moored in port, or at the usual place for landing and taking in cargo free from any immediate impending peril insured against ; 1 Phil. Ins. 968 ; Speyer v. Ins. Co., 3 Johns. (N. Y.) 88 ; Bill v. Mason, 6 Mass. 313 ; Code de Comm. 152.
MOOT (from Saxon gemot, meeting to gether. Anc. Laws and Inst. of England). See FOLD GEMOTE ; WITENA-GEMOT ; FICTI TIOUS ACTION; AMICABLE ACTION.
In English Law. A term used in the inns of court, signifying the exercise of arguing imaginary cases, which young barristers and students used to perform at certain times, the better to be enabled by this practice to defend their clients' cases. Orig. Jur. 212. Mooting was formerly the chief exercise of the students in the inns of court.
To plead a mock cause. (Also spelled meet, from Sax. nvotain, to meet ; the sense of debate being from meeting, encounter ing. Webster, Dict.) Any attempt, by a mere colorable dispute, to obtain the opinion of a court upon a ques tion of law, when there is no real controver sy, is an abuse which courts have always reprehended and treated as a punishable con tempt of court; Taney, C. J., in Lord v. Veazie, 8 How. (U.•S.) 251, 12 L. Ed. 1067; any agreement to practice such deceit is void ; Connoly v. Cunningham, 2 Wash. Terr. 242, 5 Pac. 473; Van Horn v. Kittitas Coun ty, 112 Fed. 3. Courts do not adjudicate moot cases, and will not hear a case when the object sought is not attainable ; Jones v. Montague, 194 U. S. 150, 24 Sup. Ct. 611, 48 L. Ed. 913. So also State v. Savage, 64 Neb. 684, 90 N. W. 898, 91 N. W. 557; State v. Lambert, 52 W. Va. 248, 43 S. E. 176.
On a bill to restrain the secretary of the treasury from paying certain sums, if they have been paid, the question of right is a moot question ; Wilson v. Shaw, 204 U. S. 24,
27 Sup. Ct. 233, 51 L. Ed. 351; but a case is not moot where interests of a public charac ter are asserted by the government under conditions that may be immediately repeated, merely because the particular order has ex pired ; Southern Pac. Terminal Co. v. Inter state Commerce Commission, 219 U. S. 498, 31 hup. Ct. 279, 55 L. Ed. 310.
Where a questiOn of jurisdiction has be come a moot question on appeal from a judg ment for nominal damages, it will not be considered; Delaware, L. & W. R. Co. v. Lyne, 193 Fed. 984, 113 C. C. A. 604 ; and a suit will not be retained to deterniine appel lant's liability on bonds, when there is noth ing in the record on which the rights of the parties may be adjudicated ; Lewis Pub. Co. v. Wyman, 228 U. S. 610, 33 Sup. Ct. 599, 57 L. Ed. 989.
Courts will not construe contracts until actual questions have arisen from them ; New Orleans & N. W. Ry. Co. v. Ferry Co., 104 La. 53, 28 South. 840. Action will not lie for the sole purpose of determining at law whether a city ordinance is void ; Coykendali v. Hood, 36 App. Div. 558, 55 N. Y. Supp. 718. An action will not lie against a city hospital for injuries received therein merely to fix plaintiff's damages, in order that he may present his claim to the legislature ; Maia's Adm'r v. Hospital, 97 Va. 507, 34 5.*E. 617, 47 L. R. A. 577.
Where there is an actual bona fide contest as to a legal right, an agreement to put the case in such shape that the right can be readily determined by the court, especially when it concerns a matter of public moment, which should be speedily settled, is a com mon practice in every state in the Union. The legal tender cases are said to have been made up In that way. So also Ex parte De ment, 53 Ala. 397, 25 Am. Rep. 611.
A moot question is one which has not been decided.