IMPARGANCUTUM - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

IMPARGANCUTUMAuthored

The Law Mind • 572 words

Definition

An archaic legal term denoting the right to impound cattle. In historical practice, this referred to the authority to seize and confine livestock — typically as a remedy for trespass, damage to land, or nonpayment of a debt or obligation — until the owner satisfied the underlying claim or paid the costs of the impoundment. The term is essentially a Latinized form designating what English common law practice addressed more broadly under the doctrines of distress and pound.

Common Confusion

Bouvier's entry for IMPARGANCUTUM is immediately followed by the entry for IMPARLANCE, and the two appear in close proximity in historical dictionary sources. Researchers skimming Bouvier's should take care not to conflate these unrelated terms. IMPARLANCE (from the French parler, to speak) refers to a continuance of time granted by a court to a party to answer an opponent's pleading — an entirely procedural concept with no connection to the impoundment of animals or property.

Why It Matters in Research

This term will appear almost exclusively in older English and early American legal materials dealing with agricultural disputes, trespass on the case, pound breach, or rescue of distrained animals. Researchers encountering it in historical pleadings, land records, or common law treatises should understand it as a term of art for the impoundment right rather than a broader property or procedural concept.

The practical doctrinal content of this right — who could exercise it, under what circumstances, and what procedures governed release of the impounded animals — is found not under this Latin heading but under the rubrics of DISTRESS, POUND, POUND BREACH, and RESCUE in historical treatises and case law. Bouvier's own entry is a single-sentence gloss; researchers needing substantive law will need to follow those cross-references rather than rely on any elaboration under this heading.

The term does not appear to have survived into modern American legal usage in any active form. Modern equivalents are handled by statutory animal control, estray, and impoundment provisions at the state level, none of which use this Latin designation.

Historical Dictionary Support

Bouvier's Law Dictionary provides the sole known historical dictionary treatment, and it is notably brief — a single sentence defining the term as "the right to impound cattle." No elaboration on procedure, remedy, or historical development is offered. This brevity likely reflects that the term, even by Bouvier's era, was understood as a compressed Latin label for a well-established common law right more fully treated elsewhere, rather than a term requiring independent doctrinal exposition.

No entry for this term appears in Black's Law Dictionary or other standard historical American legal dictionaries surveyed for this corpus. The Bouvier's placement of IMPARGANCUTUM immediately before IMPARLANCE is a formatting artifact worth noting for researchers using page-image or OCR-based versions of the dictionary, where the two entries are easily merged or confused in transcription.

Jurisdictional Note

As an archaic term, IMPARGANCUTUM carries no meaningful current jurisdictional variation. The underlying right to impound straying or trespassing livestock exists in modified statutory form across American jurisdictions, but no modern state law employs this Latin designation.

Encyclopedia Cross-Reference

Law Mind Encyclopedia — Impoundment
Law Mind Encyclopedia — Distress and Distraint
Law Mind Encyclopedia — Pound Breach

IMPARGANCUTUMmain

Bouvier's Law Dictionary • 1928

The right to impound cattle. IMPARLANCE (from Fr. parler, to speak). In Pleading and Practice. Time given by the court to either party to an- swer the pleading of his opponent: as, either to plead, reply, rejoin, etc. It is said to be nothing else but the con- tinuance of the cause till a further day; Bacon, Abr. Pleas (C). In this sense im- parlances are no longer allowed in English practice; 3 Chitty, Gen. Pr. 700; Andr. Steph. Pl. 162. Time to plead. This is the common signi- fication of the word; 2 Wms. Saund. 1, n. 2; 2 Show. 310; Barnes 346; Laws, Civ. Pl. 93. In this sense imparlances are not recognized in American law, the common practice being for the defendant to enter an appearance, when the cause stands con- tinued, until a fixed time has elapsed with- in which he may file his plea. In the act of congress of May 19, 1828, § 2, the word imparlance was originally used for "stay of execution," but the latter phrase has been substituted for it: Rev. Stat. § 988. See CONTINUANCE. A general imparlance is the entry of a general prayer and allowance of time to plead till the next term, without reserving to the defendant the benefit of any excep- tion; so that after such an imparlance the defendant cannot object to the jurisdiction of the court, or plead any matter in abate- ment. This kind of imparlance is always from one term to another. A general special imparlance contains a saving of all exceptions whatsoever, so that the defendant after this may plead not only in abatement, but he may also plead a plea which affects the jurisdiction of the court, as privilege. He cannot, however, plead a tender, and that he was always ready to pay, because by craving time he admits that he is not ready, and so falsifies his plea: Tidd, Pr. 418. A special imparlance reserves to the de- fendant all exception to the writ, bill, or count; and therefore after it the defend- ant may plead in abatement, though not to the jurisdiction of the court. See Comyns, Dig. Abatement (I) 19, 20, 21, Pleader (D); 1 Chitty, Pl. 420; 1 Sell. Pr. 265; Bacon, Abr. Pleas (C).