ACCOMENDA, mar¹. law. In Italy, is a contract which takes place when an individual entrusts² personal property with the master of a vessel³, to be sold for their joint⁴ account. In such case, two contracts take place; first, the contract called mandatum, by which the owner of the property gives the master power to dispose of it, and the contract of partnership⁵, in virtue⁶ of which, the profits are to be divided between them. One party runs the risk of losing his capital, the other his labor⁷. If the sale produces no more than first cost, the owner takes all the proceeds; it is only the profits which are to be divided. Emer. on Mar. Loans, B. 5.

ACCOMODATION, com. law. That which is done by one merchant or other person for the convenience of some other, by accepting or endorsing⁸ his paper, or by lending him his notes or bills.

2. In general the parties who have drawn⁹, endorsed¹⁰ or accepted bills or other commercial paper for the accommodation, of others, are, while in the hands of a holder¹¹ who received them before they became due, other than the person for whom the accomodation was given, responsible as if they had received full value. Chit. Bills, 90; 91. See 4 Cranch, 141; 1 Ham. 413; 7 John. 361; 15 John. 355, 17 John. 176; 9 Wend. 170; 2 Whart. 344; 5 Wend. 566; 8 Wend. 437; 2 Hill, S. C. 362; 10 Conn. 308; 6 Munfd. 381.

ACCOMMODATION, contracts. An amicable¹² agreement or composition between two contending parties. It differs from accord and satisfaction, which may take place without any difference having existed between the parties.

ACCOMPLICE¹³, crim. law. This term includes in its meaning, all persons who have been concerned in the commission of a crime, all particepes crimitis, whether they are considered in strict legal propriety¹⁴, as principals iu the first or second degree, or merely as accessaries before or after the fact. Foster, 341; 1 Russell, 21; 4 Bl. Com. 331; 1 Phil. Ev. 28; Merlin, Repertoire¹⁵, mot Complice. U. S. Dig. h. t.

2. But in another sense, by the word accomplice is meant, one who not being a principal, is yet in some way concerned in the commission of a crime. It has been questioned, whether one who was an accomplice to a suicide can be punishhed as such. A case occurred in Prussia where a soldier, at the request of his comrade, had cut the latter in pieces; for this he was tried capitally. In the year 1817, a young woman named Leruth received a recompense for aiding a man to kill himself. He put the point of a bistouri on his naked breast, and used the hand of the young woman to plunge¹⁶ it with greater force into his bosom¹⁷; hearing some noise he ordered her away. The man receiving effectual aid was soon cured of the wound which had been inflicted¹⁸; and she was tried and convicted of having inflicted the wound, and punished by ten years' imprisonment¹⁹. Lepage, Science du Driot,c h. 2 art. 3, 5. The case of Saul, the king of Israel, and his armor bearer, (1 Sam. xxxi. 4,) and of David and the Amelekite, (2 Sam. i. 2-16,) will doubtless occur to the reader.