DOUBLE; DOUBLE PLE...

DOUBLE. Twofold; as, double cost; double insurance; double plea.

DOUBLE COSTS practice. According to the English law, when double costs are given by the statute, the term is not to be understood, according to its literal import, twice the amount of single costs, but in such case the costs are thus calculated. 1. the common costs; and, 2. Half of the common costs. Bac. Ab. Costs, E; 2 Str. 1048. This is not the rule in New York, nor in Pennsylvania. 2 Dunl. Pr. 731; 2 Rawle's R. 201.

2. In all cases where double or treble costs are claimed, the party must apply to the court for them before he can proceed to the taxation, otherwise the proceeding will be set aside as irregular. 4 Wend. R. 216. Vide Costs; and Treble Costs.

DOUBLE ENTRY. A term used among merchants to signify that books of account are kept in such a manner that they present the debit and credit of every thing. The term is used in contradistinction to single entry.

2. Keeping books by double entry is more exact, because, presenting all the active and all the passive property of the merchant, in their respective divisions, there cannot be placed an article to, an account, which does not pass to some correspondent account elsewhere. It presents a perfect, view of each operation, and, from the relation and comparison of the divers accounts, which always keep pace with each other, their correctness is proved; for every commercial operation is necessarily composed of two interests, which are connected together. The basis of this mode of keeping books, and the only condition required, is to write down every transaction and nothing else; and to make no entry without putting it down to the two agents of the operation. By this means a merchant whose transactions are extensive, comprising a great number of subjects, is able to known not only the general situation of his affairs, but also the situation of each particular operation. For example, when a merchant receives money, his cash account becomes debtor, and the person who has paid it, or the merchandise sold, is credited with it; when he pays money, the cash account, is credited, And the merchandise bought, or the obligation paid, is debited with it. See Single entry.

DOUBLE INSURANCE, contracts. Where the insured makes, two insurances on the same risk, and the same interest. 12 Mass. 214. It differs from re-insurance in this, that it is made by the insured, with a view of receiving a double satisfaction in case of loss; whereas a re-insurance is made by a former insurer, his executors or assigns, to protect himself and his estate from a risk to which they were liable by the first insurance. The two policies are considered as making but one insurance. They are good to the extent of the value of the effects put in risk; but the insured shall not be permitted to recover a double satisfaction. He can sue the underwriters on both the policies, but he can only recover the real amount of his loss, to which all the underwriters on both shall contribute in proportion to their several subscriptions. Marsh. Ins. B. 1, c. 4, s. 4; 5 S. & R. 473; 4 Dall. 348; 1 Yeates, 161; 9 S. & R. 103; 1 Wash . C. C. Rep. 419; 2 Wash. C. C. Rep. 186; 2 Mason, 476.

DOUBLE PLEA. The alleging, for one single purpose, two or more distinct grounds of defence, when one of them would be as effectual in law, as both or all. Vide Duplicity.

DOUBLE VOUCHER. A common recovery is sometimes suffered with double voucher, which occurs when the person first vouched to warranty, comes in and vouches over a third person. See a precedent, 2 Bl. Com. Appx. No. V. p. xvii.; also, Voucher.

2. The neecessity for double voucher arises when the tenant in tail is not the tenant in the writ, but is tenant by warranty; that is, where he is vouched, and comes in and confesses the warranty. Generally speaking, to accomplish this result, a previous conveyance is necessary, by the tenant in tail, to a third person, in order to make such third person tenant to a writ of entry. Preston on Convey. 125-6.

DOUBLE WASTE. When a tenant, bound to repair, suffers a house to be wasted, and then unlawfully fells timber to repair it, he is said to commit double waste. Co. Litt. 53. See Waste.