Adjuration

Is the act by which
one person solicts another to tell or
swear to the truth. WolfT, Inst. § 374.

ADJUSTMENT, in maritime law;
the adjustment of a loss is the settling
and ascertaining the amount of the in-
demnity which the insured after oil
proper allowances and deductions have
been made, is entitled to receive, and
the proportion of this, which each under-
writer is liable to pay, under the policy.
Marsh. Ins. B. 1, c. 14, p. 617 ; or it is
a written admission of the amounts of
the loss ns settled between the parties
to a policy of insurance. 3 Stark. Ev.
1167, 8.

2. — l u adjusting a loss, the first thing
to be considered is, how the quantity of
damages for which the underwriters arc
liable, shall be ascertained. When a
loss is a total loss, and the insured de-
cides to abandon, lie must give notice
of this to the underwriters in a reasona-
ble time, otherwise he will waive his
right to abandon, and must be content
to claim only fora partial loss. Marsh.
Ins. B. l,c. 13, s. 2; 15 East, 559; 1
T. R. 608; 9 East, 283 ; 18 East, 804 ;
6 Taunt. 383. When the loss is ad-
mitted to be total, and the policy is a
valued one, the insured is entitled to re-
ceive the whole sum insured, subject to
such deductions as may have been
agreed by the policy to be made in case
of lass.

3. — The quantity of damages being
known, the next point to be settled is by
what rule this shall be appreciated. The
price of a tiling does not afford a just
criterion to ascertain its true value. It
may have been bought very dear or
very cheap. The circumstances of
time and place cause a continual varia-
tion in the price of things. For this
reason, in ensi;s of general average, the
things saved contribute not according

ADM

ADM

75

to prime cost, but according to the price
for which they may he sold at the time
of settling the average. Marsh. Ins. B.
1, c. 14, s, 2, p. 621 ; Laws of VVishuy,
art. 20 ; Laws of Oleron, art. 8 ; this
Diet. tit. Price. And see 4 Dali. 430 ;
1 Caines’s R. 80; 2 S. & R. 229 ; 2 S.
& R. 257, 258.

4. An adjustment being endorsed on
the policy, and signed by the under-
writers, with the promise to pay in a
given time, is prima facie evidence
against them, and amounts to an ad-
mission of all the farts necessary to be
proved by the insured to entitle him to
recover in an action on the policy. It
is like a note of hand, and being proved
the insured has no occasion to go into
proof of any other circumstances.
Marsh. Ins. B. 1, c. 14, s. 3, p. 632 ; 3
Stark. Ev. 1 167, 8 ; Park. ch. 4 ; Wosk.
Ins. 8; Beaw. Lex. Mer. 310; Com.
Dig. Merchant, E 9 ; Abbott on Shipp.
346 to 318. Sec Damasks.

ADMEASUREMENT OF DOWER,
remedies. This remedy is now nearly
obsolete, even in England ; the follow-
ing account of it is given by Chief Baron
Gilbert. “ The writ of admeasurement
of dower lieth where the heir when he
is within age, and endoweth the wife of
more than she ought to have dower of,
or if the guardian [in chivalry, for the
guardian in soenge cannot assign dow-
er,] endoweth the wife of more than
one-third part of the land of which she
ought to have dower, then the heir, at
full age, may sue out this writ against
the wile ; and thereby shall be admea-
sured, and the surplusage she hath in
dower shall be restored to the heir; but
in such case there shall not be assigned
anew any lands to hold to dower, but to
take from her so much of the lands as
surpasseth the third part whereof she
ought to be endowed ; and Ik? need not
set forth of' whose assignment she holds/’
Gilb. on Uses, 379; and sec F. N. B.
148; Bac. Ab. Dower, K; F. N. B.
148; Co. Lilt. 39 a; 2 Inst. 367;
Dower ; Estate in Dower.

Admeasurement of pasture, Eng.
Law. The name of a writ which i
lies where muny tenants have com- I

I mon appendant in another ground,
and one overcharges the common with
beasts. The other commoners to ob-
tain their just rights may sue out this
writ against him.