VISITATION. The act of examining into the affairs of a corporation.
2. The power of visitation is applicable only to ecclesiastical and eleemo|synary corporations. 1 Bl. Com. 480; 2 Kid on Corp. 174. The visitation of civil corporations is by the government itself, through the medium of the courts of justice Vide 2 Kent, Com. 240.
VISITER. An inspector1 of the government, of corporations or bodies politic2. 1 Bl. Com. 482. Vide Dane's Ab. Index, h. t.; 7 Pick. 303; 12 Pick. 244.
VISNE. The neighborhood; a neighboring place; a place near at hand; the venue3.
2. Formerly4 the visne was confined to the immediate5 neighborhood, where the cause of action arose, and many verdicts were disturbed because the visne was too large, which, becoming a great grievance6 several statutes7 were passed to remedy the evil. The 21 James I, c. 13, gives aid after verdict where the visne is partly wrong, that is, where it is warded8 out of too many or too few places in the county named. The 16 and 17 Charles II. c. 8, goes further, and cures defects of the visne wholly, so that the cause is tried by a jury of the proper county. Vide Venue.
VIVA VOCE. Living voice; verbally. It is said a witness delivers his evidence viva voce, when he does so in open court; the term is opposed to deposition9. It is sometimes opposed to ballot10; as, the people vote by ballot, but their representatives in the legislature, vote viva voce.
VIVARY. A place where living things are kept; as a park, on land; or in the water, as a pond.
VIVUM VADIUM, or living pledge, contracts. When a man borrows a sum of money of another, and grants him an estate, as of twenty dollars per annum, to hold till the rents and profits shall repay the sum so borrowed.
2. This is an estate conditioned to be void as soon as such sum is raised. And in this case the land or pledge is said to be living; it subsists11, and survives the debt, and immediately on the discharge, of that, results back to the borrower. 2 Bl. Com. 157. See Antichresis; Mortgage.
