PENAL

Punishable; inflicting a punishment; containing a penalty, or relating to a penalty. -Penal action. In practice. An action upon a penal statute; an action for the recovery of a penalty given by statute. 3 Steph. 535, 536. Distinguished from a popular or qui tam action, in which the action is brought by the informer, to whom part of the penalty goes. A penal action or information is brought by an officer, and the penalty goes to the king. 1 Chit. Gen. Pr. 25, note; 2 Archb. Pr. 188. But in American law, the term includes actions brought by informers or other private persons, as well as those instituted by governments or public officers. ·In a broad sense, the term has been made to include all actions in which there may be a recovery of exemplary or vindictive damages, as suits for libel and slander, or in which special, double, or treble -damages are given by statute, such as actions to recover money paid as usury or lost in gaming. See Bailey v. Dean, 5 Barb. (N. Y.) 303; Ashley v. E'rame, 4 Kan. App. 265, 45.Pac. 927; Cole v. Groves, 134 Ma . 472. But in a more particular sense it means (1) an action on a statute whic'h gives a certain penalty to be recovered by any person who will sue for it, (In re Barker. 56 Vt. 20,) or (2) an action in which the judgment against the defendant is in the,nature of a fine or is intended as a punishment, actions in which the recovery is to be compensatory in its purpose and effect not being penal actions but civil imits, though they may carry special damages by statute. See Moller v. U. S., 57 Fed. 490, 6 C. C. A. 459; Atlanta v. Chattanooga Foundry & Pipe Works, 127 Fed. 23, 61 C. C. A. 387, 64 L. R. A. 721.-Penal bill. An instrument formerly in use, by which a party bound himself to pay a certain sum or sums of money, or to do certain acts, or,. in default thereof, to pay a certain specified sum by way of penalty; thence term€d a "penal sum." These instruments have been superseded by the use of a bond in a penal sum, with conditions. Brown.-Penal bond. A bond prom is in i to p·ay a named sum of money (the penalty) with a condition undel"Written that, if a stipulated collateral thing, other than the payment of money, be done or forborne, - as the case may be, the obligation shall be void. Burn• side v. Wand, 170 Mo. 581, 71 S. W. 337, 62 L. R. A. 427.-Pe:ilal clause, A penal clause is a secondary obligation, entered into for the purpose of enforcing the performance of a primary obligation. Civ. Code La. art. 2117. Also a clause in a statute declaring a penalty for a violation of the preceding clartses.-Penal laws. Those which prohibit an act and impose a penalty for the commi ion of it. 2 Cro, Jae. 415. Strictly and properly speaking, a penal law is one imposittg a penalty or punishment (and properly a pecuniary fine or mulct) for some offense of a public ntture or wrong committed!1-P.inst the state. Sackett v. Sackett, 8 Pick. (Ma .) 320; Kilton v. Providence -Tool ·co., 22 R. I. 605, 48 Atl. 1089; Drew v. Ro1to sell, 47 Vt. 252; Net>raska Nat. Bank v. Walsh, 68 Ark. 433, 59 S. W, 952, 82 Am. St.. Rep. 301. Strictly speaking, statutes giving a private action against· a wrongdoer are not penal jn·their nature. neither the liability imposed nor the remedJ' oven beiDi penal. u the, lrl'OIII [s. 892]