ET ADJOURNATUR - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

ET ADJOURNATURAuthored

The Law Mind • 673 words

Definition

A Latin phrase meaning "and it is adjourned." Et adjournatur appears in the old English law reports as a notation indicating that the argument of a cause was postponed to a later date, or that the court ordered a second argument to be heard. It is a reporter's phrase, not a term of art with ongoing operative legal force — it describes procedural history within a reported case rather than a legal concept in itself.

Common Confusion

Et adjournatur is sometimes loosely associated with continuance practice or with court orders of adjournment, but it should not be read as equivalent to either. It is a descriptive notation made by a law reporter recording what occurred in a case, not a judicial directive or a procedural term carrying its own legal definition. The word "adjournatur" (third-person singular passive of adjournare) signals the reporter's summary, not the court's formal language of order.

Why It Matters in Research

Researchers working in early English case reporters — particularly the Keble Reports and contemporaneous Year Book-style records — will encounter et adjournatur as a standard marginal or inline notation. Its presence signals that the case entry being read is incomplete: argument was not concluded in the sitting being reported, and the dispositive reasoning (if any) will appear in a later entry, possibly under a separate head or date. Failing to recognize this can lead a researcher to treat a truncated argument as the court's full treatment of a question.

The phrase belongs to the reporter's vocabulary of the 17th and 18th centuries. By the time law reporting became more systematized in the 19th century — and certainly by the era of nominative reporters giving way to official series — such Latin notations largely disappeared in favor of English procedural summaries. A researcher consulting pre-1800 English reports should treat et adjournatur as a structural cue: look forward in the same reporter (and in parallel reporters covering the same term) for the continuation or resolution of the argument.

Because Keble's Reports are cited in all three historical dictionary sources for this term (1 Keb. 692, 754, 773), that collection is the natural corpus anchor. Keble is dense with procedural notations of this kind, and et adjournatur recurs throughout. Cross-referencing the cited pages against the same cause name in other contemporaneous reporters (such as Levinz or Ventris, which overlap with Keble's period) is a standard research technique when a Keble entry is flagged with this phrase.

This term has no continuing American legal significance. It does not appear in U.S. court rules, modern procedural codes, or contemporary case law. Its value is entirely historical and bibliographic.

Historical Dictionary Support

Black's (both editions) and Bouvier's are in complete agreement on this phrase: all three define it identically as "and it is adjourned" and offer the same functional explanation — a notation in old reports marking postponed or re-argued matters. Bouvier adds a citation to Black's own dictionary, which is circular but confirms that by Bouvier's time the phrase was already understood purely as a historical reporter's convention.

None of the three sources explain the mechanics of why argument was adjourned in any given instance — illness of counsel, absence of judges, the court's desire for further consideration, or the need for a second argument on a difficult point. The historical record in the reporters themselves is the only place to recover that context. The dictionaries treat the phrase as self-explanatory once translated, which is appropriate for what is essentially a bibliographic convention rather than a legal doctrine.

Jurisdictional Note

Et adjournatur is exclusively a feature of early English common law reporting. It has no equivalent usage in Scots law, civil law jurisdictions, or American legal practice. American researchers will encounter it only when consulting pre-19th-century English authorities.

ET ADJOURNATURmain

Black's Law Dictionary • 1891

And it is ad- journed. A phrase used in the old reports, where the argument of a cause was adjourned to another day, or where a second argument was had. 1 Keb. 692, 754, 773.

ET ADJOURNATURmain

Bouvier's Law Dictionary • 1928

And it is ad- journed. A phrase used in the old reports, where the argument of a cause was ad- journed to another day, or where a second argument was had. 1 Keb. 692, 754: Black, L. Dict. ET ALIUS (Lat.). And another. The abbreviation et al., sometimes in the plural written et als., is affixed to the name of the first plaintiff or defendant, in entitling a cause, where there are several joined as plaintiffs or defendants. On an appeal from a judgment in favor of two or more parties, a bond payable to one of the appel. lees et al. will be good; 8 La. Ann. 318; 12 id. 252. But where a summons should state the parties to the action, the name of one followed by the words et al. is not sufficient; 44 Cal. 630. ET CÆTERA (Lat.). And others; and other things. See 39 Hun 576; 4 Daly 62. The addition of the abbreviation etc. to some minor provisions of an agreement for a lease does not introduce such uncertainty as to prevent a decree for specific perform- ance where the material points are clear; Chelmsford, Ld. Ch., in 2 De G. & J. 559; but such an agreement "for letting and taking coals, etc.," was too indefinite a state- ment of the subject-matter of the agreement to admit of such a decree; 1 De G. M. & G. 80; but an agreement "to do all the painting, papering, repairing, decorating. etc., during the term of the lease" was not so uncertain as to prevent a specific perform- ance: 21 L. J. Rep. 185. Under a bequest of "all her household furniture and effects, plate. linen, china, glass, books, wearing apparel, etc.." it was claimed that the testatrix had disposed of the general residue of her estate, but she was held by Romilly, M. R., to be intestate "except as to the articles specified in the will and those which are ejusdem generis;" 26 Beav. 220; and the same judge held the words good-will, etc., in a contract, to in- clude "such other things as are necessarily connected with and belong to the good-will, for instance, the use of trade-marks," and a covenant not to engage in similar business in Great Britain for a reasonable time to be limited in the conveyance having regard to the nature of such undertakings. "All these things would be included in the words et cætera;" 28 L. J. Ch. 212; "all my furniture, etc.," passed only property ejusdem generis and not shares of a water- works company; L. R. 11 Eq. 363; "all my money, cattle, farming implements, etc., the paying" certain sums named to testa- tor's two brothers, was, upon looking at the whole will, sufficient to make the widow universal residuary legatee of real and per- sonal estate, the latter being insufficient to pay debts; Jessel, M. R., L. R. 4 Ch. Div. 800. The abbreviation etc. was formerly much used in pleading to avoid the inconveniences attendant upon making full and half de- fence. See DEFENCE. It is not generally to be used in solemn instruments; see 6 S. & R. 427; when used in pleadings to avoid rep- etition, it usually refers to things unneces- sary to be stated: 27 Ark. 564, Where the sense of the abbreviation may be gathered from the preceding words there is sufficient certainty; but where the ab- breviation cannot be understood and affects a vital part of the contract or instrument the uncertainty will be fatal. See 105 Mass. 21; 11 Hun 70; L. R. 11 Eq. 362.

ET ADJOURNATURmain

Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) • 1910

And it is adjourned. <A phrase used in the old reports, where the argument of a cause was adjourned to another day, or where a second argument was had. 1 Keb. 692, 754, 773.

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