CADERE - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

CADEREAuthored

The Law Mind • 959 words

Definition

A Latin term from old English legal practice meaning to fall, fail, cease, or come to an end. Used principally in medieval and common law pleading to signal that a writ, action, assise, or procedural proceeding had terminated, abated, or otherwise lost its force. The term also carried a secondary meaning of transformation or conversion — that one procedural form had been changed into another.

CADERE appears almost exclusively in Latin compound phrases rather than standing alone. The most commonly encountered forms are:

- CADIT ACTIO: the action fails
- CADIT BREVE: the writ fails
- CADIT ASSISA: the assise abates
- CADIT LOQUELA: the pleading or discussion ceases
- CADIT QUAESTIO: the question is at an end; there is no room for further argument
- CADIT WARRANTIA: the warranty falls
- CADIT ASSISA IN JURATUM: the assise is converted into a jury

Each phrase marks a specific procedural event. CADIT QUAESTIO survives longest in legal writing and occasionally appears in modern judicial opinions as a rhetorical signal that a matter is settled beyond dispute.

Common Language

Modern common usage (Wiktionary): "Cadere" is a Latin verb meaning to fall, drop, or sink. Not a current English word in common use.

Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Not independently listed. The root is recognized through English derivatives such as "cadence," "cadent," and "case" (from casus, a falling).

The gap here is not between legal and common meaning but between the term's Latin root and its technical procedural function. In common Latin, cadere describes physical or metaphorical falling. In law Latin, the term was systematically applied to the failure or abatement of legal proceedings — a specialized juridical metaphor that was invisible unless one worked in pleading.

Common Confusion

CADERE and its compounds can be confused with one another or misread in manuscript sources. CADIT ASSISA, for example, describes two distinct events depending on context: the abatement of an assise proceeding, and the conversion of an assise into a jury trial. Burrill specifically notes this dual operation. Researchers encountering either phrase in a Bracton citation or Year Book fragment should determine from context whether the assise is ending altogether or being transformed into a different procedural form. CADIT QUAESTIO is sometimes treated in modern usage as equivalent to "the case is closed," but historically it was a narrower rhetorical signal that a specific point of argument admitted no further contest, not that an entire proceeding had terminated.

Why It Matters in Research

CADERE is a navigational term for researchers working in medieval common law records, Bracton, the Year Books, and early English pleading literature. Several practical points:

First, the term appears almost nowhere in post-seventeenth-century legal writing except as a quotation or historical reference. If you encounter CADERE or its compounds in a modern source, it is almost certainly a citation to or gloss on an older authority. The research trail leads backward, not forward.

Second, Burrill's entries provide the most useful citation index. His references to Bracton (fol. 140b, 161, 182b, 192b, 210b, 260b, 308, 308b, 363, 394) give researchers specific folio locations in the Bracton corpus where each compound phrase appears in context. These are genuine manuscript references and serve as primary source anchors.

Third, CADIT QUAESTIO has a separate afterlife in legal rhetoric. Unlike the other compounds, which belong entirely to old pleading practice, CADIT QUAESTIO migrated into general legal argument as a Latin flourish signaling that a question is definitively resolved. Researchers tracing the phrase in nineteenth- and twentieth-century judicial opinions should not assume procedural content — in those contexts, it functions as emphasis, not as a technical term of pleading.

Fourth, Bouvier notes that ABATE is often the most accurate English translation of cadere. When translating Latin pleading records, researchers should prefer "abates" or "fails" over the literal "falls," which can mislead modern readers.

Historical Dictionary Support

The four source dictionaries present a consistent account with meaningful differences in emphasis.

Black's (both editions) treats CADERE primarily as a definitional anchor for its compound phrases — the entry is a gateway to CADIT ACTIO, CADIT ASSISA, and CADIT QUAESTIO rather than a substantive discussion of the term itself. This is appropriate for a practitioner's dictionary but limits analytical depth.

Bouvier adds the useful gloss that ABATE captures the general sense as well as any English equivalent, and includes the phrase CADERE CAUSA (to lose a cause), which the other dictionaries omit. This phrase is more concrete than the others — it describes the outcome for a party, not just the procedural status of a writ.

Burrill is the most technically precise. He frames CADERE explicitly as a term "in old practice," positions it as the antonym of STARE (to stand) and TENERE (to hold), and provides the Bracton folio references that give researchers primary source access. His entry is the most useful for anyone working backward from the term into actual medieval records.

None of the historical dictionaries address the term's disappearance from active practice or explain why CADIT QUAESTIO survived when its siblings did not. That gap is worth noting for researchers who encounter the phrase in post-classical legal writing.

Jurisdictional Note

CADERE and its compounds are products of medieval English common law and civil law pleading. They have no active jurisdictional variation in modern practice. Scottish, Irish, and civilian legal traditions contain analogous concepts under different Latin formulations. Researchers working in colonial American records may occasionally encounter the phrases in early pleading, where English practice was carried over before being displaced by domestic procedural rules.

CADEREmain

Black's Law Dictionary • 1891

Lat. To end; cease; fail. As in the phrases cadit actio, (or breve,) the action (or writ) fails; cadit assisa, the as- sise abates; cadit quæstio, the discussion ends, there is no room for further argument. To be changed; to be turned into. Cadit assisa in juratum, the assise is changed into a jury.

CADEREmain

Bouvier's Law Dictionary • 1928

(Lat.). To fall; to fail; to end; to terminate. The word was generally used to denote the ter- mination or failure of a writ, action, complaint, or attempt: as, cadit actio (the action fails), ccdit as- sisa (the assise abates), cadere causa or a causa (to lose a cause). Abate will translate cadere as often as any other word, the general signification being, as stated, to fail or cease. Cadere ab actione (liter- ally, to fall from an action), to fail in an action; cadere in partem, to become subject to a division. To become; to be changed to; cadit assisa in juratum (the assize has become a jury). Calvinus, Lex.

CADEREmain

Burrill's Law Dictionary • 1867

L. Lat. In old practice. To fall, fail, cease, or come to an end; to abate. Cadit actio; the action fails, or abates. Bract. fol. 308, 308 b. Cadit appellum. Id. 140 b, 141. Cadit assisa. Id. 192 b, 210 b. Cadit breve. Id. 161, 182 b. Cadit loquela. Id. 260 b, 363. Cadit warrantia. Id. 394. Cadit quæstio; (q. v.) there is an end of the question. The opposite of stare, (to stand,) and tenere, (to hold). Aut stabil appellum aut cadet; the appeal will either stand or fall. Bract. 140 b. Et sic vel cadit breve omnino, vel stabit quantum ad quosdam, et cadet quantum ad alios; and so the writ either abates altogether, or will stand good as to some, and abate as to the others. Id. fol. 414. Cadit breve et assisa versus tales, licet teneat versus alios; the writ and assise fails against such, though it holds against the others. Id. fol. 203. Ubi cadit actio, ibi cadit breve; where the action fails or abates, there the writ abates also. Id. fol. 414. See Chet. Cadere à, or ab. To fail in, or be defeated; to lose. Cadat ab actione sua et à causa; he shall fail in his action and cause. Bract. fol. 280. Cadit mulier à casu; the woman loses her case. Id. 301 b. Cadit à causa; she loses her cause. Fleta, lib. 2, c. 61, § 16. Cadat à causa sua; he shall lose his cause. Bract. fol. 308 b. Qui cadit à syllaba cadit à tota causa; he who mistakes in a syllable, loses his whole cause. Stat. Wales, 12 Edw. I. 3 Bl. Com. 407. 2 Reeves' Hist. Eng. Law, 98. See Bract. fol. 211. Used in the same sense without the preposition. Cadere causa; to fail in, or lose one's cause, to be cast. Cic. De Orat. i. 36. Inst. 4. 6. 33. Cadere assisa; to be nonsuited. Fleta, lib. 4, c. 15. Literally translated in Scotch law, to fall from. "To fall from a right," is to lose or forfeit it. 1 Kames' Equity, 228. Cadere in. To fall into; to become liable to; to be the subject of. Cadit donatio in partem; the gift becomes the subject of division, (or venit in divisionem, goes into a common stock, for the purpose of making a general division.) Bract. fol. 22. Cadere in assisam; to be the subject of an assise, as an agreement or covenant; to be sued for in that form. Id. 213 b. The same as incidere. Id. 213. To become liable to an assise, as a person or party; to be suable in that form. Possunt plures cadere in assisam, sicut unus; several defendants may be included in an assise as well as one. Id. fol. 172. The same as incidere, which is more frequently used. Id. fol. 170 b, 171. Cadere in. To fall into; to be changed or turned into. Cadit assisa in juratam ; the assise is turned into a common jury. Bract. fol. 213 b. Cadit assisa, nec est capienda ut assisa, sed vertitur in juratam; the assise falls, nor is it to be taken as an assise, but it is turned into a jury. Id. fol. 192 b. Cadit assisa et vertitur in juratam. Id. fol. 210 b. Cadit assisa in perambulationem; the assise is turned into a perambulation. Id. 180, 211 b. 1 Reeves' Hist. Eng. Law, 336.

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