Definition
Latin: "I, such a one." A formulaic phrase drawn from medieval conveyancing practice, used as a placeholder in the standard forms of old deeds to represent the name of the executing party — roughly equivalent to the modern drafting convention of writing "[Name of Grantor]" or "the undersigned." The phrase signals a position in a document template where the actual identity of the individual would be inserted upon execution. It carries no independent substantive legal meaning; its function is purely structural and formal.
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Common Confusion
EGO TALIS vs. ALTER EGO: The shared Latin root *ego* ("I" or "self") may draw a researcher's eye toward *alter ego*, the well-developed doctrine in corporate law concerning liability of a controlling person or entity for the acts of another. The two terms are unrelated. *Ego talis* is a medieval conveyancing placeholder with no substantive legal content. *Alter ego* is a modern doctrine with constitutional, statutory, and common law dimensions. A search for either term should not be treated as retrieving the other.
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Why It Matters in Research
Researchers encountering *ego talis* in historical sources should treat it as a marker of formulary practice, not as a term of legal significance. Its appearance signals that the document being examined — or the treatise describing it — is drawing on medieval Latin deed forms, most likely from the tradition of English conveyancing manuals and registers of writs.
The sole historical authority in the Law Mind corpus is Burrill's reference to Fleta (a late 13th-century English legal treatise), which situates the phrase squarely in the context of formal deed drafting conventions. Researchers working with pre-modern English land records, deed registries, or treatises on conveyancing will encounter placeholder language of this kind. Recognizing *ego talis* prevents misreading a formulaic gap-filler as a substantive legal operative word.
The phrase has no living legal use. It does not appear in modern statutes, case law, or current drafting practice. Any encounter with *ego talis* outside a historical or comparative law context warrants caution about the currency of the source.
Note the surface resemblance to *alter ego* — a doctrinally significant term in modern corporate and agency law — which shares the Latin *ego* root but is otherwise entirely unrelated in meaning and context. Do not conflate the two.
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Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary provides the only entry among the shelf sources. The definition is brief: "I, such a one. Words used in describing the forms of old deeds," with a direct citation to Fleta, lib. 3, c. 14, § 5. Fleta is a reliable primary source for late medieval English legal procedure and form-book practice, lending the citation credibility. No other historical dictionary in the Law Mind collection — Black's, Bouvier's, or others — carries an independent entry for *ego talis*, which is consistent with the phrase's status as a narrow term of art confined to formulary rather than substantive law. There is nothing in the historical record to suggest the term ever carried broader doctrinal weight. Burrill's treatment is complete for the phrase's scope.
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Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
The Law Mind Business Organizations & Corporate Law Encyclopedia entry on Piercing the Corporate Veil — Alter Ego Doctrine addresses the *alter ego* concept in its modern corporate law context. That entry is not a direct subject match for *ego talis* but is included here to support researchers who arrive at this entry through a search involving the word *ego* and need to locate the doctrinally significant corporate law concept.
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