Definition
"In another place." A Latin maxim appearing in historical legal texts to indicate that a person, thing, or act was located or occurred in a place other than the one specified or at issue. The phrase functions as a locational qualifier — shorthand for asserting that the relevant subject matter belongs to, or was found in, a different jurisdiction, venue, or physical location than the one before the court.
The term appears most commonly in the context of the writ or plea of *cepit in alio loco* — literally, "he took [it] in another place" — a defense in replevin actions asserting that the goods were not taken where the plaintiff alleged they were seized, but rather in a different location. This was a material plea because the place of taking could determine jurisdiction, the lawfulness of the distress, and the applicable local custom.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers encountering *in alio loco* in historical records should treat it as a locational flag with procedural consequences, not mere descriptive Latin. The phrase most frequently surfaces in replevin pleadings, where the place of the taking was a traversable fact — meaning it could be formally denied and put to proof. A defendant's plea of *cepit in alio loco* was a specific denial of the venue alleged by the plaintiff, and courts treated it as raising a distinct issue of fact. In older reports and abridgements, this plea appears with enough frequency to have its own index entry in Bouvier and related sources.
Corpus researchers searching for this phrase should note that it rarely appears as a standalone entry. In Black's (both editions), it is listed as a brief glossary item — "in another place" — sandwiched between longer Latin maxims. Bouvier, more practically, redirects the reader to *cepit in alio loco*, which is where the substantive treatment lives. This cross-reference structure means that a researcher who stops at the *in alio loco* entry will miss the bulk of the legal doctrine. Always follow the Bouvier redirect.
The phrase can also appear in a more general sense in treatises discussing venue, jurisdictional challenges, or the location of acts in tort and criminal pleading — contexts where asserting that something happened "in another place" carried procedural weight. Be alert to this broader usage when reading early common law pleading manuals.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary (1st and 2nd editions) treat *in alio loco* identically: a two-word gloss ("in another place") appearing alphabetically between longer Latin maxims. Neither edition develops the term beyond the translation. The entries appear to function as index aids rather than substantive definitions — confirming that Black's editors understood the phrase to be sufficiently self-explanatory in context, or that its legal significance was fully captured under related entries.
Bouvier's approach is more useful for working researchers. Rather than defining the term in isolation, Bouvier redirects to *cepit in alio loco*, where the replevin context is addressed. This reflects Bouvier's generally more practical organization for pleading-related Latin phrases. The divergence between the two sources — Black's glossary treatment versus Bouvier's redirect — is itself informative: it signals that the term's legal weight is procedural and best understood through the specific writ form it qualifies.
Neither source addresses the phrase's use outside the replevin context, and no historical dictionary entry engages with the locational-traversability doctrine in depth. Researchers needing that analysis must move to pleading treatises.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
See Law Mind Encyclopedia: Replevin; Pleading (Common Law Forms)