Definition
A Latin-derived legal phrase meaning "in several" or "in severalty." It describes a holding, right, or obligation that exists separately — belonging to, owed by, or exercisable by a person individually rather than jointly or in common with others. When property is held in separali, each holder's interest is distinct and independent, not shared with others in undivided portions.
Common Confusion
In separali should not be confused with in solidum, a Civil Law phrase denoting joint and several liability in which each obligor is liable for the full amount. In separali, by contrast, emphasizes the separateness or independence of individual interests or obligations — each party's portion is distinct, but there is no implication that any one party bears the whole. The two phrases are conceptual opposites in the obligations context: in solidum creates collective exposure; in separali marks individual, bounded responsibility.
Why It Matters in Research
In separali functions primarily as a Latin shorthand for the concept of severalty, and researchers encountering it in historical legal materials should treat it as a direct pointer to that doctrine. The phrase appears in medieval and early modern sources — particularly in texts following the structure of Fleta (the 13th-century English legal treatise) — and is rarely used in modern legal writing, where "in severalty" or simply "severally" has displaced it entirely.
The key research trap is terminological: a document using in separali is making the same substantive point as one that says "held in severalty," but the Latin form can cause the connection to be missed when searching or indexing. Researchers working in pre-19th-century land records, treatises, or pleadings should cross-check in separali against entries and discussions filed under severalty, several tenancy, and sole ownership. The phrase is also occasionally encountered in the context of obligations — a debt or duty described as in separali is owed separately by each obligor, not jointly, which has significant implications for the liability of co-obligors and the remedies available to a creditor.
Because the phrase is almost exclusively a historical Latin tag rather than a living term of art, it does not appear in modern statutes or contemporary case law. Its significance in the Law Mind corpus is therefore concentrated in older English legal texts, common law treatises, and early American materials that drew heavily on English sources. Researchers should not expect jurisdictional variation in its meaning — the phrase is definitionally stable — but should be alert to whether the surrounding source is using it in the property context (severalty of title) or the obligations context (several liability).
Historical Dictionary Support
All four source dictionaries — Black's (both editions), Burrill's, and Bouvier's — are in complete agreement: in separali means "in several" or "in severalty," and all four cite the identical authority, Fleta, lib. 2, c. 54, § 20. The unanimity is notable and reflects the phrase's narrow, settled function as a Latin equivalent for a well-understood common law concept. None of the sources elaborate beyond the translation and citation, which itself signals that in separali was understood as a term of convenience rather than a term of independent legal significance — it carries no meaning that "in severalty" does not carry.
Burrill is the only source that explicitly labels the phrase "L. Lat." (Law Latin), confirming that this is the technical legal Latin register rather than classical or ecclesiastical Latin. This matters when consulting period glossaries or Latin dictionaries, which may not include terms from the Law Latin vocabulary.
The reliance on Fleta as the sole supporting authority across all four dictionaries suggests the phrase had its primary currency in medieval English legal practice and was preserved largely through the treatise tradition rather than through continuous judicial use.