Definition
A Latin term meaning "to fall," "to fall in," "to come to hand," or "to happen." In legal usage, *acoidere* appears chiefly in the phrase *quando acciderint* (when they shall come to hand), which describes a conditional form of judgment entered against an executor or administrator. Such a judgment is not immediately enforceable against the defendant personally; instead, satisfaction is deferred until assets of the estate actually come into the executor's or administrator's possession. The term thus captures the contingent, future-oriented nature of certain judgments in probate and estate administration contexts.
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Why It Matters in Research
Researchers encountering *acoidere* in historical legal sources will almost always find it in the context of *quando acciderint* judgments rather than as a standalone term. The practical significance lies in understanding what such a judgment did and did not accomplish: it established liability against an executor or administrator without exposing that party to immediate execution, because the obligation was tied to the future receipt of estate assets. This distinction mattered enormously in historical practice, where estates were often administered over extended periods and assets came to hand irregularly.
The spelling variant "acoidere" in Black's 2nd Edition likely reflects a typographical irregularity in the original print source; the standard Latin form is *accidere*. Researchers using digitized or OCR-processed versions of historical dictionaries should be alert to this kind of corruption, as search queries for "acoidere" will not return results for "accidere" and vice versa. Cross-checking both spellings is advisable when working with period sources.
The term has no meaningful life in modern legal practice as a standalone word. Its relevance today is almost entirely confined to reading and interpreting historical pleadings, judgments, and treatises in probate law. Researchers working in equity jurisdiction materials or early common law estate administration will encounter *quando acciderint* most frequently in contexts where an estate's solvency was uncertain at the time of judgment.
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Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) is the sole source in the Law Mind corpus for this entry and gives a compact but accurate treatment: "to fall; fall in; come to hand; happen," with the illustrative use in *quando acciderint* judgments against executors and administrators. The Black's entry is valuable primarily as a pointer to that phrase rather than as a full treatment of the underlying doctrine.
Historical sources beyond Black's do not commonly give *acoidere* its own entry, treating the concept instead under *quando acciderint* or under discussions of executor liability. Researchers needing fuller doctrinal context should pursue those headings rather than the Latin verb itself. Earlier editions of Black's and competing dictionaries of the period (Bouvier, Burrill) may offer more extended treatment of *quando acciderint* as a procedural device than they do of the Latin root.
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Jurisdictional Note
The *quando acciderint* judgment was a feature of common law and equity practice in England and carried into American jurisdictions during the colonial and early national periods. Its practical relevance declined as statutory probate regimes modernized estate administration. Researchers should expect significant variation in how and how long individual American jurisdictions retained the form.
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