Prior to; preceding. In the presence of; under the official purview of; as in a magistrate ‘s jurat, “before me personally appeared,” etc. In the absence of any statutory provision governing the computation of time, the authorities are uniform that, where an act is required to be done a certain number of days or weeks before a certain other day upon which another act is to be done, the day upon which the first act is done is to be excluded from the computation, and the whole number of days or weeks must intervene before the day fixed for doing the second act. Ward v. Walters, 63 Wis. 44, 22 N. W. 844, and cases cited.
Black’s Law Online Dictionary
