FRUIT, property. The produce of tree or plant containing the seed or used for food. Fruit is considered real estate, before it is separated from the plant or tree on which it grows; after its separation it acquires the character of personally, and may be the subject of larceny¹; it then has all the qualities of personal property,

2. The term fruit, among the civilians², signifies not only the production of trees and other plants, but all sorts of revenue of whatever kind they may be. Fruits may be distinguished³ into two kinds; the first called natural fruits, are those which the earth produces without culture, as bay, the production of trees, minerals, and the like or with culture, as grain and the like. Secondly⁴, the other kind of fruits, known by the name of civil fruits, are the revenue which is not produced by the earth, but by the industry of man, or from animals, from some estate, or by virtue⁵ of some rule of law. Thus, the rent of a house, a right of fishing, the freight of a ship, the toll⁶ of a mill, are called, by a metaphorical⁷ expression, fruits. Domat, Lois Civ. liv. 3, tit. 5, s. 3, n. 3. See Poth. De la Communaute, n. 45.

FUERO JURGO. A Spanish code of laws, said to, be the most ancient in Europe. Barr. on the Stat. 8, note.

FUGAM FECIT, Eng. law. He fled. This phrase, in an inquisition, signifies that a person fled for treason or felony. The effect of this is to make the party forfeit⁸ his goods absolutely, and the profits of his lands until he has been pardoned or acquitted⁹.

FUGITIVE¹⁰. A runaway¹¹, one who is at liberty, and endeavors, by, going away, to escape.

FUGITIVE SLAVE. One who has escaped from the service of his master.

2. The Constitution of the United States, art. 4, s. 2, 3, directs that "no person held to service or labor¹² in one state, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any laws or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up, on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be clue." In practice summary ministerial proceedings¹³ are adopted, and not the ordinary course of judicial¹⁴ investigations¹⁵, to ascertain¹⁶ whether the claim of ownership be established beyond all legal controversy¹⁷. Vide, generally, 3 Story, Com. on Const. §1804-1806; Serg. on Const. ch. 31, p. 387; 9 John. R. 62; 5 Serg. & Rawle, 62; 2 Pick. R. 11; 2 Serg. & Rawle, 306; 3 Id. 4; 1 Wash. C. C. R. 500; 14 Wend. R. 507, 539; 18 Wend. R. 678; 22 Amer. Jur. 344.

FUGITIVE, FROM JUSTICE, crim. law. One who, having committed a crime within a jurisdiction¹⁸, goes into another in order to evade¹⁹ the law, and avoid its punishment.

2. By the Constitution of the United States, art. 4, s. 2, it is provided, that "a person charged in any state with treason, felony or other crime, who shall flee from justice, and be found in another state, shall, on demand of the executive authority of the same state from which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the state having jurisdiction of the crime." The act of thus delivering up a prisoner, is, by the law of nations, called extradition²⁰. (q. v.)

3. Different opinions are entertained in relation to the duty of a nation, by the law of nations, independently of any treaty stipulations, to surrender fugitives²¹ from justice when' properly demanded. Vide 1 Kent, Com. 36; 4 John. C. R. 106; 1 Amer. Jurist, 297; 10 Serg. & Rawle, 125; 3 Story, Com. Const. United States, §1801; 9 Wend. R. 218; 2 John. R. 479; 6 Binn. R. 617; 4 Johns. Ch. R. 113; 22 Am. Jur. 351: 24 Am. Jur. 226; 14 Pet. R. 540; 2 Caines, R. 213.

4. Before the executive of the state can be called upon to deliver an individual, it must appear, first, that a proper and formal requisition of another governor has been made; secondly, that the requisition was founded upon an affidavit²² that the crime was committed by the person charged, or such other evidence of that fact as may be sufficient; thirdly, that the person against whom it is directed, is a fugitive from justice. 6 Law Report, 57.