Definition
Latin: "And thereupon he brings [suit]." A formal concluding phrase used in common law pleading, specifically at the end of a declaration — the plaintiff's initial pleading — to formally announce the commencement of the action. The phrase functioned as a ritualized statement that the plaintiff now produces, or brings forward, the suit itself. It did not carry substantive legal weight but was required as a matter of form in order to complete a properly drawn declaration.
An important exception applied: the phrase was omitted from declarations filed against attorneys and other officers of the court, where different procedural conventions governed.
Common Confusion
ET INDE PRODUCIT vs. ET INDE AD IUDICIUM: Researchers new to Latin pleading formulae may conflate et inde producit with other et inde constructions that appear at the close of different pleadings. Et inde producit is specific to the declaration (the plaintiff's opening pleading); other Latin closing phrases marked different stages of the pleading sequence. The presence of producit — "he brings" or "he produces" — is the key identifier linking this phrase to the production of suit at the declaration stage.
Why It Matters in Research
This term belongs to the vocabulary of common law formal pleading, a system largely abolished in American jurisdictions by the mid-nineteenth century following the adoption of code pleading (beginning with the New York Field Code of 1848) and later superseded again by notice pleading under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (1938). Researchers encountering et inde producit in primary sources — case reports, declarations, plea rolls, or treatises — are almost certainly working with materials predating those reforms, which provides an immediate chronological signal.
The phrase appears at a structurally significant location: the close of the declaration. When reading historical pleadings, its presence (or conspicuous absence in filings against court officers) can help identify the document type and confirm that the pleading is a declaration rather than a subsequent pleading in the sequence.
Researchers working in English Year Books, early American case reporters, or treatises on common law pleading should expect this phrase as near-boilerplate. Its absence in a declaration where it would normally appear may indicate a defective pleading, a later-era document drafted under reformed pleading rules, or a filing against an attorney or court officer. That last exception — noted by Blackstone and carried into American practice — is easy to overlook and can cause confusion when comparing declarations from the same period that differ in their conclusions.
This term is unlikely to appear in any modern legal context except historical scholarship, legal history courses, or annotated editions of early reports. It has no operational meaning in contemporary practice.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary defines et inde producit as "And thereupon he brings suit," identifying it as the "conclusion of a declaration, except against attorneys and other officers of the court," with a citation to 3 Blackstone's Commentaries 295. This entry is spare but accurate. Blackstone's Commentaries remains the primary explanatory source: in Book III, Blackstone describes the formal parts of a declaration and the concluding averments required to complete it, of which this phrase is one.
Black's treatment is functional rather than analytical — it defines the phrase, flags the attorney exception, and points to Blackstone. Researchers should go directly to Blackstone for fuller procedural context, and to treatises such as Chitty's Treatise on Pleading for practical application in both English and early American practice. Historical dictionaries do not identify any meaningful disagreement on the meaning or use of this phrase; it was sufficiently technical and formulaic that variation was minimal.
What historical sources collectively omit is any discussion of how this phrase was treated after pleading reform. That gap is expected: the dictionaries were documenting existing practice, not forecasting its abolition. Modern researchers must supply that analytical layer themselves.
Jurisdictional Note
The phrase reflects English common law pleading practice and was carried into American colonial and early federal practice. Its use was effectively ended in American jurisdictions that adopted code pleading in the nineteenth century, with the timing varying by state. English practice followed a parallel trajectory through the Common Law Procedure Acts of the 1850s.