FILUM VIAE. The thread or middle of the road.

2. Where a law requires travellers meeting each other on, a road to drive their carriages to the right of the middle of the road, the parties are bound to keep ou their side of the worked part of the road, although the whole of the smooth or most travelled path may be upon one side of the filum viae. 7 Wend. 185; 5 Conn. 305.

FIN¹ DE NON RECEVOIR, French law. An exception or plea founded on law, which, without entering into the merits of the action, shows that the plaintiff has no right to bring it, either because the time during which it ought to have been brought has elapsed, which is called prescription², or that there has been a compromise, accord and satisfaction, or any other cause which has destroyed the right of action which once subsisted³. Poth. Proc. Civ. partie 1, c. 2, s. 2, art. 2; Story, Confl. of Laws, §580.

FINAL. That which puts an end to anything.

2. It is used in opposition⁴ to interlocutory; as, a final judgment⁵,. is a judgment which ends the coutroversy between the parties litigant⁶. 1 Wheat. 355; 2 Pet. 449. See 12 Wheat. 135; 4 Dall. 22; 9 Pet. 1; 6 Wheat. 448; 3 Cranch, 179; 6 Cranch, 51; Bouv. Inst. Index, h. t.

FINANCIER. A person employed in the economical management and application of public money or finances; one who is employed in the management of money.

FINANCES. By this word is understood the revenue, or public resources or money of the state.

FINDER. One who lawfully⁷ comes to the possessiou of another's personal property, which was then lost.

2. The finder is entitled to certain rights and liable to duties which he is obliged to perform. This is a species of deposit, which, as it does not arise ex contractu, may be called a quasi deposit, and it is governed by the same general rules as common deposits. The, finder is required to take the same reasonable care of the property found, as any voluntary depositary ex contractu. Doct. & St. Dial. 2, c. 38; 2 Bulst. 306, 312 S. C. 1 Rolle's R. 125.

3. The finder is not bound to take the goods he finds; yet, when he does undertake the custody⁸, he is required. to exercise reasonable diligence in preserving the property and he will be responsible for gross negligence⁹. Some of the old authorities laid down that "if a man find butler, and by his negligent¹⁰ keeping, it putrify; or, if a man find garments, and by his negligent keeping, they be moth¹¹ eaten, no action lies." So it is if a man find goods and lose them again; Bac. Ab. Bailment¹², D; and in support of this position; Leon. 123, 223 Owen, 141; and 2 Bulstr. 21, are cited. But these cases, if carefully examined, will not, perhaps, be found to decide the point as broadly as it is stated in Bacon. A finder would doubtless he held responsible for gross negligence.

4. On the other hand, the finder of an article is entitled to recover all expenses which have necessarily occurred in preserving the thing found; as, it a man were to find an animal, he would be entitled to be reimbursed¹³ for his keeping, for advertising¹⁴ in a reasonable manner that he had found it, and to any reward which may have been offered by the owner for the recovery of such lost thing. Domat, 1. 2, t. 9, s. 2, n. 2. Vide Story, Bailm. §35.

6. And when the owner˜20does not reclaim¹⁵ the goods lost, they belong to the finder. 1 Bl. Com. 296; 2 Kent's Com. 290. The acquisition of treasure by the finder, is evidently founded on the rule that what belongs to none naturally, becomes the property of the first occupant: res nullius naturaliter fit p7imi occupantis. How far the finder is responsible criminally, see 1 Hill, N. Y. Rep. 94; 2 Russ. on Cr. 102 Rosc. Cr. Ev. 474. See Taking.