Definition
A contutor is a co-guardian — that is, one of two or more persons jointly appointed to serve as guardian over the same ward. The term derives from Roman civil law, where guardianship (tutela) could be shared among multiple tutors, each bearing responsibility for the ward's person or property alongside the others. In English legal usage, the term appeared occasionally in contexts involving concurrent guardianship arrangements, though it was never naturalized into common law vocabulary with the same technical precision it held in the civil law tradition.
Common Confusion
Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) includes a puzzling secondary entry suggesting the term also carried the meaning "cognizance of pleas" in English law — a function entirely unrelated to guardianship. This appears to reflect a typographical or editorial error in that edition, likely a corruption of "conusance" or a misattributed entry. Researchers encountering this secondary gloss should treat it with skepticism; no English common law authority supports contutor as a term of art for jurisdictional cognizance. The guardianship meaning is the only meaning with substantive civil law grounding.
Why It Matters in Research
Contutor is a narrow term of Roman civil law origin with limited direct application in Anglo-American common law sources. Researchers are most likely to encounter it in one of three contexts: (1) treatises and commentaries translating or explaining Roman law, particularly discussions of tutela and guardianship in Justinian's Institutes; (2) early American and English chancery materials that drew on civilian sources when addressing co-guardianship disputes; and (3) comparative law scholarship addressing the intersection of civil and common law guardianship regimes.
The Institutes citation — Inst. 1, 24, 1 — is the anchor source. Researchers working with civilian primary sources should consult Justinian's Institutes, Book I, Title 24, which addresses the appointment and duties of tutors, including provisions governing multiple tutors acting jointly. The Corpus Juris Civilis is the natural home for this term; it will not appear with regularity in common law reporters.
One navigational trap: because the term is Latin and rare, it may appear in older legal encyclopedias and treatises under variant spellings or as a passing reference within broader entries on guardianship (tutela, tutor, curator). Searching only for the exact string "contutor" in historical corpus sources may miss relevant surrounding discussion.
The erroneous "cognizance of pleas" gloss in the 2nd edition of Black's is a small but genuine trap. If a researcher pulls that edition specifically for this term, the corrupted entry could send research in an entirely wrong direction.
Historical Dictionary Support
The three source dictionaries offer thin but consistent coverage. Black's (1st Ed.) and Black's (2nd Ed.) both define contutor as a co-tutor or co-guardian under the civil law, citing Inst. 1, 24, 1 — the standard reference. Burrill's entry is a fragment, identifying the term as Latin and civil law in origin but supplying no substantive definition. The absence of elaboration in Burrill's is itself informative: the term was not important enough to the Anglo-American practice tradition to warrant extended treatment.
The anomalous second gloss in Black's (2nd Ed.) — linking contutor to cognizance of pleas in English law — stands apart from everything else in the record. No civilian or common law authority is offered in support, and no other source dictionary reflects it. It is almost certainly a printing or editorial error, possibly caused by the conflation of adjacent entries during typesetting.
What the historical dictionaries collectively miss: any discussion of how co-guardianship functioned in practice under Roman law, including questions of joint and several liability among contutores, the role of the praetor in appointing them, or their duties relative to each other and the ward. Researchers needing that substantive context must go beyond the dictionary literature to civilian treatises and to the Institutes directly.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
See Law Mind Encyclopedia: Guardianship; Tutela (Roman Law)