Expression

The term or use
of language employed to explain a
thing.

2. — It is a general rule, that expres-
sions shall be construed, when they
arc capable of several significations, so
as to give operation to the agreement,
act or will, if it can be done, and an
expression is always to lx? understood
in the sense most agreeable to the na-
ture of the contract. Vide Clause;
Construction ; Equivocal; Interpreta-
tion.; Words.

EXPROMISSION, civil law, is the
act by which a creditor accepts a new
debtor, who becomes bound instead of
the old, the latter being released. It is
a species of novation, (q. v.) Vide
Delegation.

EXPROMISSOR, civ. law. By this
term is understood the person who
alone becomes bound for the debt of
another, whether the latter were obli-
gated or not. lie differs from a sure-
ty, who is IhjuihI together with his
principal. Dig. 12, 4, 4 ; Dig. 16, 1,
13; Id. 24, 3, 64, 4 ; Id. 38, 1, 37,8.

EXPU LSION of a member of a body
politic, corporate, or of a society, is the
act of depriving such member of his
right of membership therein, by the
vote of such body or society, for some
violation of his duties ns such, or lor
some offence which renders him un-
worthy of longer remaining a member
of the same.

2. — By the Constitution of the Unit-
ed States, article 1, s. 5, § 2, each
house may determine the rules of its
proceedings, punish its members for
disorderly behaviour, and, with the
concurrence of two-thirds, expel a mem-
ber. In the case of John Smith, a
senator from Ohio, w ho was expelled
from the senate in 1807, the committee
made a report which embraces the fol-
lowing points :

3. — 1. That the senate may expel a
member for a high misdemeanor, such
as a conspiracy to commit treason. Its
authority is not confined to an act done
in its presence.

4. — 2. That a previous conviction is
not requisite, in order to authorise the
senate to exjK-1 a member from their
Inxly, for u high offence against the
United States.

5. — 3. That although a bill of in-
dictment against a party for treason
and misdemeanor has been abandoned,
because a previous indictment ugainst
the principal party had terminated in
an acquittal, owing to the inadmissibil-
ity of the evidence upon that indictment,
yet the senate may examine the evi-
dence for themselves, and if it be suffi-
cient to satisfy their minds that the
party is guilty of a high misdemean-
or, it is a sufficient ground of expul-
sion.

6. — 4. That the 5th and 6th articles
of the amendments of the constitution
of the United States, containing the ge-
neral rights and privileges of the citizen
as to criminal prosecutions, refer only
to prosecutions at law, and do not af-
fect the jurisdiction of the senate ns to
expulsion.

7. — 5. That before a committee of
the senate appointed to report an opi-
nion relative to the honour and privi-
leges of the senate, and the facts re-
specting the conduct of the member im-
plicated, such member is not entitled to
lx; heard in his defence by counsel, to
have compulsory process for witnesses,
and to be confronted with his accusers.
It is before the senate that the member
charged is entitled to be heard.

8. — 6. In determining on expulsion,
the senate is not bound by the forms of
judicial proceedings, or the rules of
judicial evidence ; nor, it seems, is the
same degree of proof essential which
is required to convict of a crime. The
power of expulsion must, in its nature,
be discretionary, and its exercise of a
more summary character. 1 Hull’s
Law Journ. 459, 465.

9. — Corporations have the right of
expulsion in certain cases, as” such

EXP

EXT

517

power is necessary to tho good order
and government of corporate bodies ;
and the cases in which tho inherent
power may In? exorcised are of three
kinds : 1. When an offence is commit-
ted which has no immediate relation to
a member’s corporate duty, but is of so
infamous a nature, as renders him un-
fit for the society of honest men ; such
are the offences of perjury, forgery and
the like. But bclore an expulsion is
made lor a cause of this kind, it is ne-
cessary that there should be a previous
conviction by a jury, according to the
law of the land. 2. When tho offence
is against his duty as a corporator, in
which case he may lie expelled on trial
and conviction before the corporation.
3. The third is of a mixed nature,
against the member’s duty as a corpo-
rator, and also indictable by the law of
the land. 2 Binn. 443. Sec also 2
Burr. 530.

10. — Members of what arc called
joint stock incorporated companies, or
indeed members of any corporation
owning property, cannot, without ex-
press authority in the charter, be ex-
pelled, and thus deprived of their inte-
rest in the general fund. Aug. &
Ames on Corp. 233.

See, generally, Ang. & Ames on
Corp. eh. 11 ; Willcock on Mun. Corp.
270 ; 1 1 Co. 99 ; 2 Bing. 293 ; 5 Day,
329; Sty. 478; 0 Conn. It. 532 ; 'o
Serg. & ltawlc, 409 ; 5 Binn. 480.

EXTENSION, comm. law. This
tenn is applied among merchants to
signify an agreement made between a
debtor and his creditors, by which the
latter, in order to enable the former,
who is somewhat embarrassed in his
circumstances, to retrieve his former
standing, agree to wait for a definite
length of time after their several claims
should !>ccomc due and payable, before
they will demand payment; as John
Smith & Co. have received an extension.

2. — Among the French, a similar
agreement is known by the name of
atermoieinent. Merl. Hep. mot. Atcr-
moiement.

EXTENT IN CHIEF, in English
practice , is an execution issuing out of

the? exchequer at the suit of the crown.
It is a mere fiscal writ. See West on
Extents; 2 Tidd, Index.

EXTENT IN AID, in English
practice is an exchequer process, for-
merly much used, and now liable to
lie abused ; it is regulated by 57 Geo.
3, c. 117.

EXTENUATION, is that which
renders a crime or tort less heinous
than it would be without it; opposed
to aggravation, (q. v.)

2. — In general extenuating circum-
stances go in mitigation of punishment
in criminal cases, or of damages in
those of a civil nature. See Aggrava-
tion; Mitigation.