DESPERATE. Of which there is no hope.
2. This term is used frequently, in making an inventory1 of a decedent s effects, when a debt is considered so bad that there is no hope of recovering it. It is then called a desperate debt, and, if it be so returned, it will be prima facie, considered as desperate. See Toll2. Ex. 248 2 Williams, Ex. 644; 1 Chit. Pr. 580. See Sperate.
DESPITUS. This word signifies, in our ancient law books, a contemptible3 person. Flet. lib. 4, c. 5, §4. The English word despite is derived4 from it, which signifies spite or contempt against one s will - defiance5 with contempt, or contempt of opposition6.
DESPOT. This word, in its most simple and original acceptation, signifies master and supreme7 lord; it is synonymous with monarch8; but, taken in bad part, as it is usually employed, it signifies a tyrant9. In some states, despot is the title given to the sovereign, as king is given in others. Encyc. Lond.
DESPOTISM, government. That abuse of government, where the sovereign power is not divided, but united in the hands of a single man, whatever may be his official title. It is not, properly, a form of government. Toull. Dr. Civ. Fr. tit. prel. n. 32; Rutherf Inst. b. 1, c. 20, §1. Vide Tyranny; Tyrant.
DESRENABLE, Law French. Unreasonable10. Britt. c. 121.
DESTINATION. The application which the testator directs shall be made of the legacy11 he gives; for example, when a testator gives to a hospital a sum of money, to be applied12 in erectiug buildings, he is said to give a destination to the legacy. Destination also signifies the intended application of a thing. Mill stones, for example, taken out of a mill to be picked, and to be returned, have a destination, and are considered as real estate, although detached from the freehold. Heir looms13, although personal chattels14, are, by their destination, considered real estate and money agreed or directed to be laid out in land, is treated as real property. Newl. on Contr. ch. 8; Fonbl. Eq. B. 1, c. 6, §9; 3 Wheat. R. 577; 2 Bell s Com. 2; Ersk. Inst. 2 §14. Vide Mill.
2. When the owner of two adjoining houses uses, during his life, the property in such a manner as to make one property subject to the other, and devises one property to one person, and the other to another, this is said not to be an easement or servitude, but a destination by the former owner. Lois des Bat. partie 1, c. 4, art. 3, §3; 5 Har. & John. 82. See Dedication15.
DESTINATION, com. law. The port at which a ship is to end her voyage is called her port of destination. Pard. n. 600.
DESUETUDE16. This term is applied to laws which have become obsolete17.
