FIAR, Scotch1 law. He whose property is burdened with a life rent. Ersk. Pr. of L. Scot. B. 2, t. 9, s. 23.
FIAT2, practice. An order of a judge, or of an officer, whose authority, to be signified by his signature, is necessary to authenticate3 the particular acts.
FICTION OF LAW. The assumption that a certain thing is true, and which gives to a person or thing, a quality which is not natural to it, and establishes, consequently, a certain disposition4, which, without the fiction, would be repugnant to reason and to truth. It is an order of things which does not exist, but which the law prescribe; or authorizes5 it differs from presumption6, because it establishes as true, something which is false; whereas presumption supplies the proof of something true. Dalloz, Dict. h. t. See 1 Toull. 171, n. 203; 2 Toull. 217, n. 203; 11 Toull. 11, n. 10, note 2; Ferguson, Moral Philosophy, part 5, c. 10, s. 3 Burgess on Insolvency7, 139, 140; Report of the Revisers of the Civil Code of Pennsylvania, March 1, 1832, p. 8.
2. The law never feigns8 what is impossible fictum est id quod factum non est sed fieri potuit. Fiction is like art; it imitates nature, but never disfigures it it aids truth, but it ought never to destroy it. It may well suppose that what was possible, but which is not, exists; but it will never feign9 that what was impossible, actually is. D'Aguesseau, Oeuvres, tome iv. page 427, 47e Plaidoyer.
3. Fictions were invented by the Roman praetors, who, not possessing the power to abrogate10 the law, were nevertheless willing to derogate11 from it, under the pretence12 of doing equity13. Fiction is the resource of weakness, which, in order to obtain its object, assumes as a fact, what is known to be contrary to truth: when the legislator desires to accomplish his object, he need not feign, he commands. Fictions of law owe their origin to the legislative14 usurpations of the bench. 4 Benth. Ev. 300.
4. It is said that every fiction must be framed according to the rules of law, and that every legal fiction must have equity for its object. 10 Co. 42; 10 Price's R. 154; Cowp. 177. To prevent, their evil effects, they are not allowed to be carried further than the reasons which introduced them necessarily require. 1 Lill. Ab. 610; Hawk15. 320; Best on Pres. 20.
5. The law abounds16 in fictions. That an estate is in abeyance17; the doctrine18 of remitter19, by which a party who has been disseised of his freehold, and afterwards acquires a defective21 title, is remitted22 to his former good title; that one thing done today, is considered as done, at a preceding time by the doctrine of relation; that, because one thing is proved, another shall be presumed to be true, which is the case in all presumptions23; that the heir, executor, and administrator24 stand by representation, in the place of the deceased are all fictions of law. Our various introduction of John Doe and Richard Roe, says Mr. Evans, our solemn process upon disseisin by Hugh Hunt; our casually25 losing and finding a ship in the parish of St. Mary Le Bow, in the ward20 of Cheap; our trying the validity of a will by an imaginary, wager26 of five pounds; our imagining and compassing the king's death, by giving information which may defeat an attack upon an enewy's settlement in the antipodes our charge of picking a pocket, or forging a bill with force and arms; of neglecting to repair a bridge, against the peace of our lord the king, his crown and dignity are circumstances, which, looked at by themselves, would convey an impression of no very favorable nature, with respect to the wisdom of our jurisprudence. Vide 13 Vin. Ab. 209; Merl. Rep. h. t.; Dane's Ab. Index, h. t.; and Rey, des Inst. de I'Angl. tome 2, p. 219, where he severely27 cesures these fictions as absurd and useless.
FICTITIOUS28 Pretended; supposed; as, fictitious actions; fictitious payee.
FICTITIOUS ACTIONS, Practice. Suits brought. on pretended rights.
2. They are sometimes brought, usually on a pretended wager, for the purpose of obtaining the opinion of the court on a point of law. Courts of justice were constituted for the purpose of deciding really existing questions of right between parties, and they are not bound to answer impertinent questions which persons think proper to ask them in the form of an action on a wager. 12 East, 248. Such an attempt has been held to be a contempt of court; and Lord Hardwicke in such a case committed the parties and their attorneys. Rep. temp. Hardw. 237. See also Comb. 425; 1. Co. 83; 6 Cranch, 147-8. Vide Feigned29 actions.
3. The court of the king's bench fined an attorney forty pounds for stating a special case for the opinion of the court, the greater part of which statement was fictitious. 3 Barn. Cr. 597; S. C. 10 E. C. L. R. 193.
