Driver

One employed in con-
ducting a coach, carriage, wagon, or
other vehicle, with horses, mules, or
other animals.

2. — Frequent accidents occur in
consequence of the neglect or want of
skill of drivers of public stage-coaches,
for which the employers ure respoa-
siblo.

3. — The law requires that a driver
should possess reasonable skill and be
of good habits for the journey ; if
therefore he is not acquainted with the
road he undertakes to drive, 3 Bingh.
Rep. 314, 321 ; drives with reins so
loose that he cannot govern his horses,
2 Esp. R. 533 ; does not give notice of
any serious danger on the road, 1
Camp. R. 07 ; takes the wrong side of
the road, 4 Esp. R. 273; incautiously
comes in collision with another car-
riage, 1 Stark. R. 423; 1 Campb. R.
167 ; or docs not exercise a sound and
reasonable discretion in travelling on
the road, to avoid dangers and diffi-
culties, and any accident happens by
which any passenger is injured, both
the driver and iiis employers will be
responsible. 2 Stark. R. 37 ; 3 Engl.
C. L. Rep. 233 ; 2 Esp. R. 533 ; 1 1
Mass. 57 ; 6 T. R. 659 ; 1 East, R.
106; 4 B. & A. 590; 6 Eng. C. L.
R. 528; 2 McLean, R. 157. Vide
Common carriers ; Negligence; Quasi
Offence.

DROIT, a French word, which in
that language signifies the whole col-
lection of laws, written and unwritten,
and is synonymous to our word law.
It also signifies a right, il n’existe point
de droits sans devoirs, et vice versa. 1
Toull. n. 96 ; Poth. h. t. With us it
means right, jus. Co. Litt. 158. A
person was said to have droit droit ,
plurimum juris , and plurimum pos-
sessions, when he had the freehold,
the fee, and the property in him. lb.
266; Crabb’s 11. Eng. L. 400.

Droit d’auhaink, jus albinatus ,
was a rule by which all the projierty

of a deceased foreigner, whether mov-
able or immovable, was confiscated to
the use of the state, to the exclusion of
his heirs, whether claiming ab intestato ,
or under a will of tlie deceased.

2. — As the darkness of the middle
ages wore away, and the light of civil-
isation appeare d, this barbarous and
inhospitable usage was by degrees dis-
continued, and is now nearly abolished
in the civilized world. Vide Albinatus
jus.

Droit-close. The name of an an-
j cient writ directed to the lord of ancient
j demesne, and which lies for those
tenants in ancient demesne who hold
i their lands and tenements by charter
in fee-simple, in fi*e tail, for life, or in
I dower. F. N. B. 23.

DRUN KEN NESS, intoxication with
I strong liquor.

2. — 'Phis is an oflencc generally
punished by local regulations, more or
less severely.

3. — Although drunkenness reduces
a man to a temporary insanity, it does
not excuse him or palliate his ofience,
when he commits a crime during a fit
of intoxication, and which is the im-
mediate result of it. When the act is
a remote consequence, super-induced
by the antecedent drunkenness of the
party, as in cases of delirium tremens
or mania a potu , the insanity excuses
the act. 5 Mason’s R. 28 ; Amcr.
Jurist, vol. 3, p. 5 — 20 ; Martin &
Yeager’s R. 133, 147 ; Dane’s Ab.
Index, h. t. ; 1 Russ, on Cr. 7 ; Aylille’s
Parerg. 231 ; 4 Bl. Com. 26.

4. — As there must be a will and in-
tention in order to make a contract, it
follows, that a man who is in such a
state of intoxication as not to know
what he is doing, may avoid a contract
entered into by liim while in this suite.
2 Aik. Rep. 167 ; 1 Green, R. 233 ; 2
Verm. 97 ; 1 Bibb, 168; 3 Hnyw. R.
82; 1 Hill, R. 313; 1 South. R. 361;
Bull. N. P. 172; 1 Ves. 19; 18 Ves.
15; 3 P. Wins. 130, n. (a); Sugd.
Vend. 154; 1 Stark. 126; 1 South.
R. 361; 2 Hnyw. 394; but see 1
Bibb, R. 406 ; Ray’s Med. Jur. eh. 23,
24; Fonbl. Eq. B. 1, c. 2, § 3; 22

DRI

DRI

491

Am. Jur. 290; 1 Fodcre, Med. Leg.
§ 215. Vide Ebriosity; Habitual
drunkard.