BID, contracts. A bid is an offer to pay a specified² price for an article about to be sold at auction³. The bidder⁴ has a right to withdraw his bid at any time before it is accepted, which acceptance is generally manifested by knocking down the hammer. 3 T. R. 148; Hardin's Rep. 181; Sugd. Vend⁵. 29; Babington on Auct. 30, 42; or the bid may be withdrawn⁶ by implication. 6 Penn. St. R. 486; 8, Id. 408. Vide 0ffer.

BIDDER, contracts. One who makes an offer to pay a certain price for an article which is for sale.

2. The term is applied⁷ more particularly to a person who offers a price for goods or other property, while up for sale at an auction. The bidder is required to act in good faith, and any combination between him and others, to prevent a fair competition, would avoid the sale made to himself.

3. But there is nothing illegal in two or more persons agreeing together to purchase a property at sheriff's sale, fixing a certain price which they are. willing to give, and appointing one of their number to be the bidder. 6 Watts⁸ & Serg. 122.

4. Till the bid is accepted, the bidder may retract⁹ it. Vide articles, Auction and Bid; 3 John. Cas. 29 6 John. R. 194; 8 John. R. 444 1 Fonbl. Eq. b. 1, c. 4, §4, note (x).

BIENS. A French word, which signifies property. In law, it means property of every description, except estates of freehold and inheritance. Dane's Ab. c. 133, a, 3 Com. Dig. h. t.; Co. Litt. 118, b; Sugd. Vend. 495.

2. In the French law, this term includes all kinds of property, real and personal. Biens are divided into biens meubles, movable or personal property; and biens immeubles, immovable property or real estate. This distinction between movable and immovable property, is, however, recognized by them, and gives rise in the civil, as well as in the common law, to many important distinctions as to rights and remedies. Story, Confl. of Laws, §13, note 1.

BIGAMUS, Canon law, Latin. One guilty of bigamy.

BIGAMY, crim. law, domestic relations. The wilful¹⁰ contracting of a second marriage when the contracting party knows that the first is still subsisting¹¹; or it is the state of a man who has two wives, or of a woman who has two hushands living at the same time. When the man has more than two wives, or the woman more than two hushands living at the same time, then the party is said to have committed polygamy, but the name of bigamy is more frequently given to this offence in legal proceedings¹². 1 Russ. on Cr. 187.

2. In England this crime is punishable by the stat. 1 Jac. 1, c. 11, which makes the offence felony but it exempts¹³ from punishment the party whose hushand or wife shall continue to remain absent for seven years before the second marriage, without being heard from, and persons who shall have been legally divorced. The statutory provisions in the U. S. against bigamy or polygamy, are in general similar to, and copied from the statute¹⁴ of 1 Jac. 1, c. 11, excepting as to the punishment. The several exceptions to this statute are also nearly the same in the American statutes¹⁵, but the punishment of the offence is different in many of the states. 2 Kent, Com. 69; vide Bac. Ab. h. t.; Com. Dig. Justices, §5; Merlin, Repert. mot Bigamie; Code, lib. 9, tit. 9, 1. 18; and lib. 5, tit. 5, 1. 2.

3. According to the canonists, bigamy is three-fold, viz.: (vera, interpretative, et similitudinaria,) real, interpretative and similitudinary. The first consisted in marrying two wives successively, (virgins they may be,) or in once marrying a widow; the second consisted, not in a repeated marriage, but in marrying (v. g. meretricem vel ab alio corruptam) a harlot; the third arose from two marriages indeed, but the one metaphorical¹⁶ or spiritual, the other carnal. This last was confined to persons initiated¹⁷ in sacred orders, or under the vow¹⁸ Of continence. Deferriere's Tract¹, Juris Canon. tit. xxi. See also Bac. Abr. h. t.; 6 Decret, 1. 12. Also Marriage.