stellionate

Stellionate \Stel"lion*ate\, n. [L. stellionatus cozenage,
   trickery, fr. stellio a newt, a crafty, knavish person.]
   (Scots & Roman Law)
   Any fraud not distinguished by a more special name; --
   chiefly applied to sales of the same property to two
   different persons, or selling that for one's own which
   belongs to another, etc. --Erskine.
   [1913 Webster]
    

STELLIONATE, civil law. A name given generally, to all species of frauds 
committed in making contracts. 
     2. This word is said to be derived from the Latin stellio, a kind of 
lizard remarkable for its cunning and the change of its color, because those 
guilty of frauds used every art and cunning to conceal them. But more 
particularly it was the crime of a person who fraudulently assigned, sold, 
or engaged the thing which he had before assigned sold, or engaged to 
another, unknown to the person with whom be was dealing. Dig. 47, 20, 3; 
Code, 9, 34, 1; Merl. Repert. h.t.; Code Civil, art. 2069; 1 Bro. Civ. Law, 
426. 
     3. In South Carolina and Georgia, a mortgagor who makes a second 
mortgage without disclosing in writing, to the second mortgagee, the 
existence of the first mortgage, is not allowed to redeem and, in the 
foreign state, when a person suffers a judgment, or enters into a statute or 
recognizance binding his land, afterwards mortgages it, without giving 
notice, in writing, of the prior incumbrance, he shall not be allowed to 
redeem, unless, within six months from a written demand, he discharges such 
incumbrance. Prin. Dig. 161; 1 Brev. Dig. 166-8. 
     4. In Ohio a fraudulent conveyance is punished as a crime; Walk. Intr. 
350; and, in Indians, any party to a fraudulent conveyance is subjected to a 
flue and to double damages. Ind. Rev. Laws, 189. See 12 Pet. 773.