CAUSA

Latin: 1. A cause, reason, occasion, motive, or inducement. 2. In the civil law and in old English law. The word signified a source, ground, Bl. Law Dict.(2d Ed.)12 or mode of acquiring property; hence a title; one’s title to property. Thus, “Titulus est justa causa possidendi id quod nostrum est;” title is the lawful ground of possessing that which is ours. 8 Coke, 153. See Mack eld. Rom. Law,