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BAILIFF
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BAILIFF and BAILIE (from See also:Late See also:Lat. bajulivus, adjectival See also:form of bajulus, a See also:governor or custodian; cf. See also:BAIL), a legal officer to whom some degree of authority, care or See also:jurisdiction is committed. Bailiffs are of various kinds and their offices and duties vary greatly.
The See also:term was first applied in See also:England to the See also: They are also often called bum-bailiffs, or, shortly, bums. The origin of this word is uncertain; the New See also:English See also:Dictionary suggests that it is in allusion to the mode of catching the offender. See also:Special bailiffs are officers appointed by the sheriff at the See also:request of a See also:plaintiff for the purpose of executing a particular See also:process. The See also:appointment of a special bailiff relieves the sheriff from all responsibility until the party is arrested and delivered into the sheriff's actual custody. By the County Courts Act 1888, it is provided that there shall be one or more high-bailiffs, appointed by the See also:judge and removable by the lord-See also:chancellor; and every See also:person discharging the duties of high-bailiff is empowered to appoint a sufficient number of able and See also:fit persons as bailiffs to assist him, whom he can dismiss at his See also:pleasure. The See also:duty of the high-bailiff is to serve all summonses and orders, and execute all the warrants, precepts and writs issued out of the See also:court. The high bailiff is responsible for all the acts and defaults of himself, and of the bailiffs appointed to assist him, in the same way as a sheriff of a county is responsible for the acts and defaults of himself and his officers. By the sameact (§49) bailiffs are answerable for any connivance, omission or neglect to See also:levy any such See also:execution. No See also:action can be brought against a bailiff acting under See also:order of the court without six days' See also:notice (§5i). Any warrant to a bailiff to give See also:possession of a See also:tenement justifies him in entering upon the premises named in the warrant, and giving possession, provided the entry be made between the See also:hours of 9 A.M. and 4 P.M. (§ 142). The See also:Law of See also:Distress See also:Amendment Act 1888 enacts that no person may act as a bailiff to levy any distress for See also:rent, unless he is authorized by a county-court judgq to act as a bailiff. In the Channel Islands the bailiff is the first See also:civil officer in each See also:island. He is appointed by the See also:crown, and generally holds office for See also:life. He presides at the royal court, and takes the opinions of the jurats; he also presides over the states, and represents the crown in all civil matters. Though he need not necessarily have had legal training, he is usually selected from among those who have held some appointment at the island See also:bar.
In the See also:United States the word bailiff has no special significance. It is sometimes applied to the officer who takes See also:charge of juries and See also:waits upon the court. The officer who corresponds to the English sheriff's bailiff is termed a See also:deputy or under-sheriff.
Bailie.—In See also:Scotland the word bailiff has taken the form of " bailie," signifying a See also:superior officer or See also:magistrate of a municipal See also:corporation. Bailies, by virtue of their office, are invested with certain judicial and administrative See also:powers within the See also:burgh for which they are appointed. They sit as See also:police-court magistrates, being assisted usually by a paid legal adviser, called an " See also:assessor," and, in the larger burghs, act as a licensing court. It is usually said that a bailie is analogous to the English See also:alder-See also:man, but this is only in so far as he is a person of superior dignity in the See also:council, for, unlike an See also:alderman, he continues to sit for the See also: 
Bailie to give sasine was the person who appeared for the superior at the ceremony of giving sasine. This ceremony was abolished in 1845. The Bailie of Holyrood, or Bailie of the See also:Abbey, was the See also:official who had jurisdiction in all civil debts contracted within the precincts of the See also:sanctuary (q.v.). (T. A. I.)
Bailli.—In See also:France the bailiff (bailli), or See also:seneschal in feudal days, was the See also:principal officer of any See also:noble importance. He it was who held the feudal court of assizes when the lord was not See also:present himself. A See also:great noble often also had a prevote, where small matters were settled, and the preparatory steps taken relative to the more important cases reserved for the assizes. Among the great officers of the crown of France a See also:grand-seneschal formerly figured until the reign of See also: Their essential See also:function was at first the surveillance of the royal provosts (prevots), who until then had had the See also:sole administration of the various parts of the domain. They concentrated in their own hands the produce of the provostships, and they organized and led the men who by feudal rules owed military service to the king. They had also judicial functions, which, at first narrowly restricted in application, became much enlarged as See also:time went on, and they held periodical assizes in the principal centres of their districts. When the right of See also:appeal was instituted, it was they who heard the appeals from sentences pronounced by inferior royal See also:judges and by the seigniorial justices. Royal cases, and cases in which a noble was See also:defendant, were also reserved for them. The royal bailli or seneschal (no real difference existed between the two offices, the names merely changing according to the See also:district), was for See also:long the king's principal representative in the provinces, and the bailliage or the senechaussee was then as important administratively as judicially. But the See also:political See also:power of the bailiffs was greatly lessened when the provincial See also:governors were created. They had already lost their See also:financial powers, and their judicial functions now passed from them to their lieutenants. By his origin the bailiff had a military See also:character; he was an officer of the " See also:short robe " and not of the " long robe," which in those days was no obstacle to his being well versed in precedents. But when, under the See also:influence of See also:Roman and See also:canon law, the legal See also:procedure of the civil courts became learned, the bailiff often availed himself of a right granted him by See also:ancient public law: that of delegating the exercise of his functions to whomsoever he thought fit. He delegated his judicial functions to lieutenants, whom he selected and discharged at will. But as this delegation became habitual, the position of the lieutenants was strengthened; in the 16th See also:century they became royal officers by title, and even dispossessed the bailiffs of their judiciary prerogatives. The tribunal of the bailliage or senechaussee underwent yet another transformation, becoming a stationary court of See also:justice, the seat of which was fixed at the chief See also:town. During the 15th and 16th centuries See also:ambulatory assizes diminished in both frequency and importance. In the 17th and 18th centuries they were no more than a survival, the See also:lieutenant of such a bailliage having preserved the right to hold one See also:assize each See also:year at a certain locality in his district. The ancient bailiff or bailli d'See also:epee still existed, however; the judgments in the tribunal of the bailliage were delivered in his name, and he was responsible for their execution. So long as the military service of the See also:ban and arriere ban, due to the king from all See also:fief-holders, was maintained (and it was still in force at the end of the 17th century), it was the bailiffs who organized it. Finally the bailliage became in principle the electoral district for the states-general, the unit represented therein by its three estates. The See also:justiciary nobles retained their judges, often called bailiffs, until the Revolution. These judges, who were corppetent to decide questions as to the See also:payment of seigniorial dues\\, could not, legally at all events, themselves See also:farm those revenues. See See also:Dupont See also:Ferrier, See also:Les Officiers royaux See also:des bailliages et senechaussies et les institutions monarchiques locales en France a la fin du moyen 4ge (1902) ; Armand Brette, Recueil de documents relatifs a la See also:convocation des etats-generaux de 1789 (3 vols. 1904) (vol. iii. gives the See also:condition of the bailliages and senechaussees in 1789). (J. P. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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