SWAINMOTE COURT, Engl. law. The court within the forest to which all the freeholders owe suit and service. Bac. Ab. Courts of the Forest, 2.

TO SWEAR. To take an oath, judicially¹ administered. Vide Affirmation; Oath.

2. To swear also signifies to use such profane² language as is forbidden by law. This is generally punished by statutory provisions in the several states.

SWINDLER, criminal law. A cheat; one guilty of defrauding³ divers⁴ persons. 1 Term Rep. 748; 2 H. Blackst. 531; Stark⁵. on Sland. 135.

2. Swindling is usually applied⁶ to a transaction, where the guilty party procures⁷ the delivery to him, under a pretended contract, of the personal property of another, with the felonious design of appropriating it to his own use. 2 Russel on Crimes, 130; Alison, Prine. Cr. Law of Scotland, 250; Mass. 406.

SYMBOL. A sign; a token; a representation of one thing by another.

2. A symbolical⁸ delivery is equivalent, in many cases, in its legal effects, to actual delivery; as, for example, the delivery of the keys of a warehouse⁹ in which goods are deposited, is a delivery sufficient to transfer the property. 1 Atk. 171; 5 John. 335; 2 T. R. 462; 7 T. R. 71; 2 Campb. 243; 1 East, R. 194; 3 Caines, 182; 1 Esp. 598; 3 B. & C. 423.

SYNALLAGMATIC CONTRACT, civil law. A synallagmatic or bilateral¹⁰ contract is one by which each of the contracting parties binds¹¹ himself to the other; such are the contracts of sale, hiring, &c. Poth. Ob. n. 9. Vide Contract.

SYNDIC. A term used in the French law, which answers in one sense to our word assignee, when applied to the management of bankrupts' estates; it has also a more extensive meaning; in companies and communities, syndics are they who are chosen to conduct the affairs and attend to the concerns of the body corporate¹² or community; and in that sense the word corresponds to director or manager. Rodman's Notes to Code. de Com. p. 351; Civ. Code of Louis. art. 429; Dict. de Jurisp. art. Syndic.

SYNGRAPH. A deed, bond, or other instrument of writing, under the band and seal of all the parties. It was so called because the parties wrote together.

2. Formerly¹³ such writings were attested¹⁴ by the subscription¹⁵ and crosses of the witnesses; afterwards, to prevent frauds and concealmenta, they made deeds of mutual¹⁶ covenant¹⁷ in a script and rescript, or in a part and counterpart, and in the middle between the two copies they wrote the word syngraphus in large letters, which being cut through the parchment, and one being delivered to each party, on being afterwards put together, proved their authenticity¹⁸.

3. Deeds thus made were denominates syngraphs by the canonists, and by the common lawyers chirographs. (q. v.) 2 Blackstone's Commentaries, 296.

SYNOD. An ecclesiastical assembly.