Definition
Latin: "I have taken." A word used by sheriffs in the formal Latin return of a writ, most commonly a writ of capias, to indicate that the officer had arrested and taken into custody the person named in the writ. The sheriff's return endorsed with cepi (or cepi corpus, "I have taken the body") was the standard affirmative return confirming execution of a capias. Where the officer could not execute the writ, a different return — such as non est inventus ("he is not found") — was required instead.
Common Confusion
CEPI should not be confused with the abbreviation C.F.I. or C.I.F. (cost, insurance, and freight), a commercial contract term. Bouvier's entry in some editions groups these Latin and commercial abbreviations in proximity, and researchers scanning historical dictionary pages should take care not to conflate them. The two have no legal relationship to one another.
Why It Matters in Research
Cepi is a term of Latin pleading practice encountered almost exclusively in historical court records, sheriff's returns, and early American and English common law procedure. Researchers working with pre-nineteenth-century court files, writs, or docket books — particularly in jurisdictions that continued Latin pleading into the early republic — will find this word as an endorsement on the reverse of capias writs. Its significance is procedural and evidentiary: a cepi corpus return established on the record that the defendant had been taken, which in turn determined what next steps the court could take. A missing or defective return could affect jurisdiction over the person.
Because Latin pleading was abolished in England by the Pleading in English Act 1730 and was phased out at varying times in American jurisdictions, cepi appears almost nowhere in post-nineteenth-century materials. Researchers encountering it in colonial records, early federal circuit court papers, or English Year Book materials should understand it as the officer's formal acknowledgment of arrest, not as substantive legal doctrine.
The term will not appear in modern procedural codes. Its relevance today is confined to legal history, paleography of court documents, and interpretation of historical pleading records.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary (both the first and second editions) define cepi consistently: the Latin word meaning "I have taken," used in sheriff's returns on writs of capias. The second edition is more informative, noting that the full return was commonly rendered in one of several standard Latin formulas, of which cepi corpus was the affirmative form. This entry reflects the dictionary's function as a reference for practitioners who still encountered historical records phrased in Law Latin.
Bouvier's and Rapalje & Lawrence do not address cepi as a standalone entry in the excerpts available. The Bouvier's material provided concerns C.F.I./C.I.F. — an unrelated commercial abbreviation — and the Rapalje & Lawrence excerpt covers census, a separate term entirely. Neither adds to the understanding of cepi. Researchers should rely on Black's (1st and 2nd editions) as the authoritative historical dictionary sources for this term.
No significant divergence exists among the sources that address cepi directly. The definition is stable and narrow.
Jurisdictional Note
Cepi as a formal return was used in both English and American common law courts during the period when sheriff's returns were made in Latin. American jurisdictions abolished Latin pleading at different times; most had done so by the mid-nineteenth century. The term has no operative meaning in any modern procedural system.