QUALIFY. To become qualified or fit for any office or employment. To take the nec essary steps to prepare one's self for an ap pointment: as, to take an oath to discharge the duties of an office, to give the bond re quired of an executor, etc.
It is, held synonymous with probate in a statute authorizing probate judges to qual ify wills by receiving the evidence of wit nesses, etc. Bent v. Thompson, 5 N. M. 408, 23 Pac. 238.
Of Persons. The state of con dition of a person.
Two contrary qualities cannot be in the same person at the same time. Dig. 41. 10. 4. Every one is presumed to know the qual ity of the person with whom he is contract ing. In the United States the people are all upon an equality in their civil rights.
In Pleading. That which distinguishes one thing from another of the same kind.
It is, in general, necessary, when the dec laration alleges an injury to the goods and chattels, or any contract relating to them, that the quality should be stated; and it is also essential, in an action for the recovery of real estate, that its quality should be shown: as, whether it consists of houses, lands, or other hereditaments, whether the lands are meadow, pasture, or arable, etc.
The same rule requires that in an action for an injury to real property, the quality should be shown; Steph. Pl. 214, 215. See, as to the various qualities, Ayliffe, [60].
It is often allowable to omit from the in dictment, and it is seldom necessary to prove with precision, allegations of quality, or, in other words, those allegations which de scribe the mode in which certain acts have been done. Thus, if the charge is of a felo nious assault with a staff, and the proof is of such an assault with a stone, or if a wound, alleged to have been given with a sword, is proved to have been inflicted by an axe, or If a pistol is stated to have been loaded with a bullet, and it turns out to have been loaded with some other destruc tive material, the charge is substantially proved, and no variance occurs: 5 C. & P. 128; 9 id. 525, 548.