Definition
A pleading formula used to introduce the allegations of a declaration in a common law civil action. The phrase signals that what follows is a positive, direct allegation of fact — a statement the pleader asserts as true, not merely as background or recital.
Contrast with "for that whereas," a closely related formula that introduces a recital — that is, a narrative or contextual statement of background facts rather than a direct charge or assertion.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): "Because."
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): A causal conjunction equivalent to "because" or "since," used to introduce a reason or explanation.
In ordinary English, "for that" is simply a slightly formal way of saying "because." In common law pleading, the phrase carries a precise technical function entirely distinct from causation — it is a term of art that signals a positive, operative allegation. A researcher encountering "for that" in a historical declaration should not read it as introducing a reason but as introducing a legal charge.
Common Confusion
"For that" and "for that whereas" appear side by side in historical pleading and are easily conflated, but they do different work. "For that" introduces a positive allegation — the meat of the claim. "For that whereas" introduces a recital — prefatory matter that sets context but is not itself the operative charge. The distinction mattered in practice: a pleading defect could arise from treating recital language as allegation or vice versa. Researchers reading historical declarations should track which formula governs each clause before drawing conclusions about what the pleader was actually asserting.
Why It Matters in Research
This term is a navigational marker in historical common law pleading documents. When reading declarations from the English and early American common law period, "for that" functions as a structural signal — it tells the reader that a direct, affirmative legal assertion is beginning. Missing this cue can cause a researcher to misread the structure of a declaration, blurring the line between what was being alleged and what was merely being narrated.
The term virtually disappears from legal documents following the adoption of code pleading in American jurisdictions across the nineteenth century, beginning with the Field Code in New York in 1848. Modern civil complaints do not use this formula. Researchers working in pre-code materials — especially writs, common law declarations, and early American state court filings — will encounter it regularly. Those working in post-code materials will almost never see it, and its presence in a document can itself serve as a dating signal.
Because both Black's and Bouvier's give identical short definitions, the full weight of interpretation falls on understanding the surrounding common law pleading system. The phrase cannot be understood in isolation; it belongs to the grammar of common law declaration practice, where formal introductory words carried substantive procedural significance.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary and Bouvier's Law Dictionary are in complete agreement, offering virtually identical definitions and citing the same authority: Hammon's Nisi Prius (Ham. N. P. 9). Both distinguish "for that" (positive allegation) from "for that whereas" (recital) in the same breath, suggesting this pairing was the standard way the distinction was taught and remembered.
Neither dictionary elaborates beyond this single-sentence treatment, which is appropriate for a purely formal term of art. What the historical dictionaries do not address is the broader context: why the distinction between allegation and recital mattered procedurally, what consequences followed from misuse, or how the formula fit into the larger architecture of common law pleading (declaration, plea, replication, and so on). Researchers who need that context must look to pleading treatises of the period — Chitty on Pleading is the standard reference — rather than expecting the dictionary entries to supply it.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
See Law Mind Encyclopedia: Common Law Pleading; Declaration (Pleading); Code Pleading Reform.