Chapter III.

 

Of the Construction of Laws.

 

§9.  The words of a law are generally to be understood in their most known and usual signification, without attending so much to the literal and strictly grammatical construction of the words as to their general or popular use or meaning.

 

§10.  Where the words of a law are dubious, their meaning may be sought by examining the context, with which the ambiguous words, phrases and sentences may be compared, in order to ascertain their true meaning.

 

§11.  Laws in pari materia, or upon the same subject matter, must be construed with reference to each other; what is clear in one statute may be called in aid to explain what is doubtful in another.

 

§12.  One of the most effectual ways of discovering the true meaning of the law, when its expressions are dubious, is by considering the reason and spirit of it, or the cause which induced the Legislature to enact it.

 

§13.  When the words of a law are ambiguous, every construction which leads to an absurdity should be rejected.

 

§14.  The Judges have equitable as well as legal jurisdiction, and in all civil matters, where there is no express law, they are bound to proceed and decide according to equity, applying necessary remedies to evils that are not specifically contemplated by law, and conserving the cause of morals and good conscience.  To decide equitably, an appeal is to be made to natural law and reason, or to received usage, and resort may also be had to the laws and usages of other countries.

 

§15.  Every word importing the singular numbers only, may extend to an embrace the plural number; and every word importing the plural number only, may be applied and confined to the singular number as well as the plural; and every word importing the masculine gender only, may extend to an include females as well as males.

 

§16.  Each of the terms or and, has the meaning of the other or both, when the subject matter, sense and connection require such construction.

 

§17.  The word person, or words importing persons, for instance, another, others, any, any one, anybody, and the like, signify not only persons, but corporations, societies, communities, assemblies, inhabitants of a district, or neighborhood, or persons known or unknown, and the public generally, where it appears, from the subject matter, the sense and the connection in which such words are used, that such construction is intended.

 

§18.  The word month shall be construed to mean calendar month, unless otherwise expressed; and the word year, a calendar year, unless otherwise expressed.

 

§19.  The word oath shall be construed to include affirmation, when made by one alleging himself to be a member of the Society of Friends.

 

 

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