Legal Term: INTENDMENT OF LAW

Definition: The true meaning, the correct understanding, or intention of the law; a presumption or inference made by the courts. Co. Litt. 78. 2. It is an intendment of law that every man is innocent until proved guilty, vide Innocence; that every one will act for his own advantage, vide Assent; Fin. Law, 10, Max. 54; that every officer acts in his office with fidelity that the children of a married woman, born during the coverture, are the children of the hushand, vide Bastardy; many things are intended after verdict, in order to support a judgment, but intendment cannot supply the want of certainty in a charge in an indictment for a crime. 5 Co. 1 21; vide Com. Dig. Pleader, C 25, and S 31; Dane s Ab. Index, h. t.; 14 Vin. Ab. 449; 1 Halst. 132; 1 Harris. 133.

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