Definition
An archaic Latin adverb meaning "then" or "at that time," used in legal pleading and formal instruments to fix a fact or status as existing at a specific past moment. The phrase *adtunc existens* — "then being" — was the more common construction in practice, deployed to affirm that a person held a particular office, status, or capacity at the time relevant to the legal action, rather than at the time of pleading or judgment.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers encounter *adtunc* almost exclusively in pre-nineteenth century English common law pleading records, Year Books, and early American colonial and post-colonial court documents that followed English practice. Its function is precise and narrow: it anchors a fact in time. When reading historical pleadings, the phrase signals that the drafter is carefully distinguishing between what was true *then* (at the time of the act or event in dispute) and what may be true *now* (at the time of the pleading). Missing this distinction can cause a researcher to misread a pleading's allegations about the capacity or authority of a party.
The construction *adtunc existens* — "then being" — appears most often in connection with official capacity: a sheriff, justice, or other officer who acted in an official role is described as *adtunc existens* to confirm that the official status was concurrent with the act, not merely historical. This matters for questions of official immunity, the validity of process, and the sufficiency of a pleading in historical litigation.
Because *adtunc* is a term of pure Latin pleading art, it largely disappears from legal usage after the abolition or reform of formal common law pleading in the mid-nineteenth century, both in England (the Common Law Procedure Acts, 1852–1860) and in American jurisdictions adopting code pleading following New York's Field Code of 1848. Researchers working with documents after those reforms will rarely encounter the term in active use. Its appearance in a post-reform document is itself a signal worth noting — it may indicate a drafter copying from an older form, a jurisdiction slow to adopt reform, or a specialized proceeding (such as certain ecclesiastical or admiralty matters) retaining archaic language.
The term has no meaningful case law development of its own; its significance is entirely textual and pleading-technical. The Burrill citations to *1 Ld. Raym. 123* and *2 Show. 284* point to early English reported cases where the phrase appeared in pleadings under review — they are illustrative of usage, not doctrinal authority on the word itself.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary provides the only substantive historical dictionary treatment of the term. Burrill defines it tersely: Latin *adtunc*, meaning "then," citing *1 Ld. Raym. 123* and *2 Show. 284*; and the extended form *adtunc existens* ("then being"), citing *Yelv. 28*. The entry is consistent with the term's function as a term of pleading art rather than a term carrying independent doctrinal weight.
No meaningful divergence exists across historical sources because the term is not treated at length in other major historical dictionaries (Black's early editions, Bouvier's, or Tomlin's). Its absence from those dictionaries underscores that even among legal lexicographers, *adtunc* was recognized as a narrow pleading term rather than a concept requiring extended definition. Burrill's inclusion reflects his broader commitment to Latin and Norman French terms of the common law forms.
Jurisdictional Note
The term belongs to the tradition of English common law formal pleading and is therefore relevant wherever that tradition was received — England, Wales, and the American states following English practice. It has no meaningful civil law or equity counterpart.