nonsense
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NONSENSE, construction. That which in a written agreement or will is
unintelligible.
2. It is a rule of law that an instrument shall be so construed that
the whole, if possible, shall stand. When a matter is written grammatically
right, but it is unintelligible, and the whole makes nonsense, some words
cannot be rejected to make sense of the rest; 1 Salk. 324; but when matter
is nonsense by being contrary and repugnant to, some precedent sensible
latter, such repugnant matter is rejected. Ib.; 15 Vin. Ab. 560; 14 Vin. Ab.
142. The maxim of the civil law on this subject agrees with this rule: Quae
in testamento ita sunt scripta, ut intelligi non possent: perinde sunt, ac
si scripta non essent. Dig. 50,17,73,3. Vide articles Ambiguity;
Construction; Interpretation.
3. In pleading, when matter is nonsense by being contradictory and
repugnant to something precedent, the precedent matter, which is sense,
shall not be defeated by the repugnancy which follows, but that which is
contradictory shall be rejected; as in ejectment where the declaration is of
a demise on the second day of January, and that the defendant postea
scilicet, on the first of January, ejected him; here the scilicet may be
rejected as being expressly contrary to the postea and the precedent matter.
5 East, 255; 1 Salk. 324.