IMPRESCRIPTIBILITY. The state of being incapable¹ of prescription².

2. A property which is held in trust is imprescriptible; that is the trustee cannot acquire a title to it by prescription; nor can the borrower of a thing get a right to it by any lapse³ of time, unless he claims an adverse⁴ right to it during the time required by law.

IMPRIMATUR. A license⁵ or allowance to one to print.

2. At one time, before a book could be printed in England, it was requisite⁶ that a permission should be obtained that permission was called an imprimatur. In some countries where the press is liable to censure⁷, an imprimatur is required.

IMPRIMERY. In some of the ancient English statutes⁸ this word is used to signify a printing-office, the art of printing, a print or impression.

IMPRIMIS. In the first place; as, imprimis, I direct my just debts to be paid. See Item.

IMPRISONMENT⁹. The restraint of a person contrary to his will. 2 Inst. 589; Baldw. Rep. 239, 600. Imprisonment is either lawful¹⁰ or unlawful; lawful imprisonment is used either for crimes or for the appearance of a party in a civil suit, or on arrest in execution.

2. Imprisonment for crimes is either for the appearance of a person accused, as when he cannot give bail¹¹; or it is the effect of a sentence, and then it is a part of the punishnient.

3. Imprisonment in civil cases takes place when a defendant¹² on being sued on bailable¹³ process refuses or cannot give the bail legally demanded, or is under a capias ad satisfaciendum, when he is taken in execution under a judgment¹⁴. An unlawful imprisonment, commonly called false imprisonment, (q. v.) meaus any illegal imprisonment whatever, either with or without process, or under color of process wholly illegal, without regard to any question whether any crime has been committed or a debt due.

4. As to what will amount to an imprisonment, the most obvious modes are confinement¹⁵ in a prison or a private house, but a forcible detention¹⁶ in the street, or the touching¹⁷ of a person by a peace officer by way of arrest, are also imprisonments. Bac. Ab. Trespass¹⁸, D 3; 1 Esp. R. 431, 526. It has been decided¹⁹ that lifting up a person in his chair, and carrying him out of the room in which he was sitting with others, and excluding him from the room, was not an imprisonment; 1 Chit. Pr. 48; and the merely giving charge of a person to a peace officer, not followed by any actual apprehension²⁰ of the person, does not amount to an imprisonment, though the party to avoid it, next day attend at a police; 1 Esp. R. 431; New Rep. 211; 1 Carr. & Pavn. 153; S. C. II Eng. Com. Law, R. 351; and if, in consequence of a message from a sheriff's officer holding a writ²¹, the defendant execute and send him a bail bond, such submission²² to the process will not constitute an arrest. 6 Bar. & Cres. 528; S. C. 13 Eng. Com. Law Rep. 245; Dowl. & R. 233. Vide, generally, 14 Vin. Ab. 342; 4 Com. Dig. 618; 1 Chit. Pr. 47; Merl. R«pert. mot Emprisonment; 17 Eng. Com. L. R. 246, n.

IMPROBATION. The act by which perjury²³ or falsehood is proved. Techn. Dict. h. t.

IMPROPRIATION, eccl. law. The act, of employing the revenues of a church living to one's own use; it is also a parsonage or ecclesiastical living in the hands of a layman²⁴, or which descends²⁵ by inheritance. Techn. Dict. h. t.

IMPROVEMENT, estates. This term is of doubtful meaning It would seem to apply principally to buildings, though generally it extends to amelioration of every description of property, whether real or personal; it is generally explained by other words.

2. Where, by the terms of a lease, the covenant²⁶ was to 1eave at the end of the term a water-mill with all the fixtures²⁷, fastenings, and improvements, during the demise²⁸ fixed²⁹, fastened, or set up on or upon the premises³⁰, in good plight³¹ and condition, it was held to include a pair of new millstones set up by the lessee³² during the term, although the custom of the country in general authorized³³ the tenant³⁴ to remove them. 9 Bing. 24; 3 Sim. 450; 2 Ves. & Bea. 349. Vide 3 Yeates, 71; Addis. R. 335; 4 Binn. R. 418; 5 Binn. R. 77; 5 S. & R. 266; 1 Binn. R. 495; 1 John. Ch. R. 450; 15 Pick. R. 471. Vide Profits. 2 Man. & Gra. 729, 757; S. C. 40 Eng. C. L. R. 598, 612.

3. Tenants³⁵ in common are not bound to pay for permanent improvements, made on the common property, by one of the tenants in common without their consent. 2 Bouv. Inst. n. 1881.