DISTRINGAS - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

DISTRINGASAuthored

The Law Mind • 1146 words

Definition

A writ commanding a sheriff to seize (distrain) a person's goods and chattels in order to compel that person to appear before a court or comply with a legal requirement. In its classic common law form, the writ directed the sheriff to distrain goods to the value of forty shillings — enough pressure to bring a reluctant or elusive defendant into court without physically arresting them.

The distringas operated as a coercive mechanism, not a final judgment. The sheriff was not authorized to sell the goods; seizure itself was the lever. Once the defendant appeared or complied, the goods were to be released.

Two principal applications appear in the historical sources:

1. Compulsion of appearance. Where a defendant could not be personally served — whether because they were evading process or simply could not be found — the distringas provided an alternative means of forcing engagement with the court. Burrill's definition captures this precisely: the writ commanded the sheriff to distrain upon goods "in order to compel his appearance."

2. Compulsion of corporate defendants. In equity, the distringas was one of the few available mechanisms to compel a corporation aggregate to appear, since a corporation has no body to arrest and cannot be personally served in the ordinary sense. Bouvier specifically notes this equity use.

A related but distinct application appears in connection with stock and securities: a distringas could issue to prevent a party from transferring shares or receiving dividends during pending litigation, effectively freezing an intangible asset. This securities-related use was part of Chancery practice and differs in purpose from the appearance-compulsion writ.

Common Language

Modern common usage (Wiktionary): "A writ commanding the sheriff to distrain a person by his goods or chattels, to compel a compliance with something required of him."

Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): "A writ commanding the sheriff to distrain a person by his goods or chattels, to compel a compliance with something required of him."

The common and legal definitions are functionally identical here because distringas is pure legal jargon with no independent life outside law. The writ name is simply the Latin command at the writ's operative core — "you shall distrain" — and dictionaries outside the legal context have no occasion to define it differently. The term is omitted from modern general dictionaries entirely.

Recognized Forms

/SUBTYPES

Distringas ad computandum: Used to compel an accountant or receiver to appear and render an account.

Distringas nuper vicecomitem: Directed at a former sheriff to compel the return of a writ or accounting for monies collected.

Distringas (Chancery/securities form): Issued to restrain a company or its officers from permitting transfer of shares or payment of dividends while a dispute was pending — functionally an early form of injunctive freeze on intangible property.

Why It Matters in Research

The distringas is an almost entirely extinct writ in modern practice, but it appears with meaningful frequency in pre-twentieth-century litigation records, equity proceedings, and common law procedural treatises. Researchers encounter it most often in three contexts.

First, in procedural histories of service of process. The distringas was one step in a graduated sequence of process — summons, then distringas, then capias, then outlawry — used to compel a defendant's appearance. Understanding where the distringas fell in that sequence is essential for reading historical court records accurately.

Second, in equity and Chancery records involving corporations. Because corporations could not be arrested, Chancery developed the distringas as its primary coercive tool against corporate defendants. Any research into pre-modern corporate litigation in equity courts will encounter this writ.

Third, in early securities law history. The Chancery distringas freezing stock transfers is an ancestor of modern asset-freezing orders and Mareva injunctions. Researchers tracing the development of interim relief in financial disputes should recognize this lineage.

Trap for researchers: The word "distringas" appears in writ returns and procedural notes without explanation, and modern researchers sometimes misread it as a judgment or execution writ. It is not. It compels appearance or compliance; it does not enforce a final judgment. Confusing it with a fieri facias or levari facias will produce a fundamentally wrong picture of where a case stood procedurally.

Jurisdictional variation matters here: the distringas was a creature of English common law and equity. American courts adopted some variants in early practice, but the writ largely disappeared from American procedure by the mid-nineteenth century as statutory process reform replaced the old writ system. Researchers in American historical records will find it concentrated in the colonial and early federal periods.

Historical Dictionary Support

Black's (both editions) and Burrill agree closely on the core definition: a writ to the sheriff commanding distraint of goods to compel appearance, with the forty-shilling threshold explicitly noted. Burrill adds useful Latin — "Præcipimus tibi quod distringas" ("We command you that you distrain") — which confirms the writ's name is its operative verb.

Bouvier broadens the picture usefully by noting the equity use against corporations aggregate, a dimension Black's underemphasizes. This is a meaningful addition, not mere repetition.

The Rapalje & Lawrence and Anderson's entries provided in the source material do not contain substantive distringas content — they appear to be misfiled entries on district courts and distribution statutes respectively. Researchers should not treat those sources as authoritative on this term.

None of the historical dictionaries address the securities-freezing variant with any depth, despite its documented Chancery use. For that application, researchers should look to Chancery practice guides, particularly Mitford's and Daniell's treatises on equity pleading, rather than the general law dictionaries.

Jurisdictional Note

The distringas was a writ of English common law and Chancery practice, transplanted unevenly into American colonial and early state courts. By the mid-nineteenth century, American procedural reform statutes — culminating in the Field Code reforms and later the Federal Rules — eliminated most of the old writ system, and distringas with it. Researchers in English legal history will encounter it through a much longer arc than researchers in American law.

Encyclopedia Cross-Reference

See Law Mind Encyclopedia — Writs; Distraint and Distress; Equity Procedure and Chancery Practice

DISTRINGASmain

Black's Law Dictionary • 1891

In English practice. A writ directed to the sheriff of the county in which a defendant resides, or has any goods or chattels, commanding him to distrain up- on the goods and chattels of the defendant for forty shillings, in order to compel his appear-profits arising from it are diminished. 3 Bl. ance. 3 Steph. Comm. 567. This writ issues in cases where it is found impracticable to get at the defendant personally, so as to serve a summons upon him. Id. A distringas is also used in equity, as the first process to compel the appearance of a corporation aggregate. St. 11 Geo. IV. and 1 Wm. IV. c. 36. A form of execution in the actions of deti- nue and assise of nuisance. Brooke, Abr. pl. 26; 1 Rawle, 44.

DISTRINGASmain

Bouvier's Law Dictionary • 1928

A writ directed to the sheriff, commanding him to distrain a person of his goods and chattels to enforce a compliance with what is required of him. It is used to compel an appearance where the party cannot be found, and in equity may be availed of to compel the appearance of a corporation aggre gate. 4 Bouvier, Inst. n. 4191; Comyns, Dig. Process (D7); Chitty, Pr.; Sellon, Pr. A form of execution in the actions of de- tinue and assize of nuisance. Brooke, Abr. pl. 26; 1 Rawle 44. DISTRINGAS JURATORES (Lat. that you distrain jurors). A writ com- manding the sheriff to have the bodies of the jurors, or to distrain them by their lands and goods, that they may appear upon the day appointed. 3 Bla. Com. 354. It issues at the same time with the venire, though in theory afterwards, founded on the supposed neglect of the juror to attend. 8 Steph. Com. 590.

DISTRINGASmain

Rapalje & Lawrence • 1888

(402) These courts have original jurisdiction over all admiralty and maritime causes, and all proceedings in bankruptcy, and over all penal and criminal matters cognizable under the laws of the United States, exclusive jurisdiction over which is not vested either in the supreme or circuit courts.-Abbott. 2. Of States. - Inferior courts of record in California, Connecticut, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Nebraska, evada, Ohio and Texas are also called "district courts." Their jurisdiction is for the most part similar to that of county courts (q. v.) 72. DISTRICT COURTS, (jurisdiction of). 3 Minn. -A writ so called from its commanding the sheriff to distrain on a person for a certain purpose. The following are the principal instances in which it is used in England, the old distringas to compel appearance, the distringas juratores, and other varieties of the writ, having been abolished. Com. L. P Act, 1852. 22. Distringas for recovery of chattel. -A judgment for the delivery of any property other than land or money (e. g. a chattel) may be enforced by a writ which authorizes the sheriff to distrain the defendant by all his lands and chattels until he delivers it up. 3 Steph. Com. 582. 23. Distringas nuper vicecomitem. -Where a writ of fieri facias has been sued 2. Proceedings in. An action in the High Court proceeds in a district registry when the plaintiff has issued the writ in that registry and the sheriff, after returning that he has levied a "distringas but that the goods remain in his hands for want of buyers, goes out of office, the execution creditor, instead of suing out a renditioni exponas (q. v.), may sue out a writ called nuper vicecomitem" ("that you distrain the late sheriff"), directed to the present sheriff, commanding him to distrain the late sheriff to compel him to sell the goods. Arch. Pr. 585; Smith Ac. 197; Rules of April, 1880, form F. and defendants have appeared there. defendant is only bound to appear in a district registry, if he either resides or carries on business in the district; otherwise, he has the option of appearing in London. (Rules of Court, xii, 2 et seq. The defendant may, however, in certain cases, remove the action from the district registry into the High Court. Jud. Act, 1873, 65; Rules of Court, xxxv. 11.) When an action proceeds in a district registry, all the pro-m ceedings in the action, down to and including final judgment, and the subsequent proceedings necessary to enforce it (including the issue of writs of execution, garnishee and charging orders), are taken in the district registry. (Jud. Act, 1873, 864; Rules of Court, xxxv., including Amended Rules of June, 1876, April and May, 1880.) 4. Distringas vicecomitem.-A writ of distringas, directed to the coroner, may be issued against a sheriff if he neglects to execute a writ of venditioni exponas. Arch. Pr. 584. 25. Against corporation. A judgment against a corporation may be enforced by writ

DISTRINGASn.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

A writ commanding the sheriff to distrain a person by his goods or chattels, to compel a compliance with something required of him.

distringasnoun

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

Wiktionary contributors • CC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
Extracted and formatted for display by Law Mind. Source link opens the current Wiktionary page and its contributor history; it is not a frozen copy of this extract.

A writ commanding the sheriff to distrain a person by his goods or chattels, to compel a compliance with something required of him.

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