FATHER-IN-LAW. In latin, socer, is the father of one's wife, or of one's hushand.
FATHER. PUTATIVE1. A reputed father. Vide Putative father.
FATHOM2. A measure of length, equal to six feet. The word is probably derived3 from the Teutonic word fad4, which signifies the thread or yarn5 drawn6 out in spinning to the length of the arm, before it is run upon the spindle. Webster; Minsheu. See Ell. Vide Measure.
FATUOUS7 PERSON. One entirely8 destitute9 of reason; is qui omnino desipit. Ersk. Inst. B. 1, tit. 7, s. 48.
FAUBOURG. A district or part of a town adjoinng the principal city; as, a faubourg of New Orleans. 18 Lo. R. 286.
FAULT, contracts, civil law. An improper10 act or omission11, which arises from ignorance, carelessness, or negligence12. The act or omission must not have been meditated13, and must have caused some injury to another. Lec. Elcm. 783. See Dolus, Negligence. 1 Miles' Rep. 40.
2. - 1. Faults or negligence are usually pided into, gross, ordinary, and slight: 1. Gross fault or neglect, consists in not observing that care towards others, which a man the least attentive14, usually takes of his own affairs. Such fault may, in some cases, afford a presumption15 of fraud, and in very gross cases it approaches so near, as to be almost undistinguishable from it, especially when the facts seem hardly consistent with an honest intention. But there may be a gross fault without fraud. 2 Str. 1099; Story, Bailm. 18-22; Toullier, 1. 3, t. 3, 231. 2. Ordinary faults consist in the omission of that care which mankind generally pay to their own concerns; that is, the want of ordinary diligence. 3. A slight fault consists in the want of that care which very attentive persons take of their own affairs. This fault assimilates itself, and, in some cases, is scarcely distinguishable, from mere16 accident, or want of foresight17. This pision has been adopted by common lawyers from the civil law. Although the civilians18 generally agree in this pision, yet they are not without a difference of opinion. See Pothier, Observation generale, sur le precedent19 Traite, et sur les suivants; printed at the end of his Traite des Obligations, where he cites Accurse, Alciat, Cujas, Duaren, D'Avezan, Vinnius, and Heineccius, in support of this pision. On the other side the reader is referred to Thomasius, tom. 2, Dissertationem, pago 1006; Le Brun, cited by Jones, Bailm. 27; and Toullier, Droit Civil Francais, liv. 3, tit. 3, 231.
3. - 2. These principles established, different rules have been made as to the responsibilities of parties for their faults in relation to their contracts. They are reduced by Pothier to three.
4.- I. In those contracts where the party derives20 no benefit from his undertaking21, he is answerable only for his gross faults.
5.-2. In those contracts where the parties have a reciprocal interest, as in the contract of sale, they are responsible for ordinary neglect.
6. - 3. In those contracts where the party receives the only advantage, as in the case of loan for use, he is answerable for his slight fault. Poth. Observ. Generale; Traite des Oblig. 142; Jones, Bailm. 119 Story, Bailm. 12. See also Ayliffe, Pand. 108. Civ. C. Lou. 3522; 1 Com. Dig. 41 3; 5 Id. 184; Wesk. on Ins. 370.
