Definition
Intermediate, as a legal adjective, means lying between two points, stages, or extremes — whether in time, procedural posture, or doctrinal position. It appears across several distinct legal contexts, each carrying a specific technical meaning:
1. Procedural/Probate: An intermediate account is an accounting filed by a fiduciary — executor, administrator, or guardian — after the initial account but before the final account. It reflects activity during a particular period of administration without closing the estate or trust relationship.
2. Constitutional Law: Intermediate scrutiny is a standard of judicial review applied to certain classifications under the Equal Protection Clause. It occupies the middle tier between rational basis review (the most deferential) and strict scrutiny (the most demanding). Under intermediate scrutiny, a law must be substantially related to an important governmental interest.
3. Mortgage/Property Law: The intermediate theory is a minority doctrine governing the legal effect of a mortgage. Under this theory, legal title remains with the mortgagor until default, at which point it passes automatically to the mortgagee — a position between the lien theory (title always stays with the mortgagor) and the title theory (title passes to the mortgagee at execution).
4. General Procedural: Intermediate describes any order, ruling, step, or proceeding occurring between the commencement and final resolution of a matter — as in an intermediate order, which is neither interlocutory in the preliminary sense nor final in the dispositive sense.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): Anything in an intermediate position; an intermediary; something between two stages or categories — used across automotive sizing, chemistry, and general description of middling status.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Lying or being in the middle place or degree, or between two extremes; coming or done between; intervening; interposed; interjacent — as in intermediate space, time, or color.
The common meaning maps closely to the legal adjective's core sense, but the legal contexts load the word with formal doctrinal precision. In constitutional law, "intermediate" is not vague middleness — it is a structured analytical framework with identifiable burdens, standards, and a defined body of case law. A researcher treating "intermediate scrutiny" as merely meaning "not-quite-strict" will misread the doctrine.
Recognized Forms
/SUBTYPES
INTERMEDIATE ACCOUNT — A probate filing by a fiduciary covering activity between the initial and final accounting. Governed by state probate codes and local surrogate court rules; requirements vary as to timing, triggering events, and required content.
INTERMEDIATE SCRUTINY — The constitutional equal protection standard applied principally to sex-based classifications and classifications based on legitimacy. Requires that a law be substantially related to an important governmental interest. Originated in the Supreme Court's gender discrimination jurisprudence of the 1970s.
INTERMEDIATE THEORY (Mortgage) — A minority mortgage doctrine under which the mortgagee acquires legal title only upon default. Distinct from both lien theory and title theory. Applied in a small number of jurisdictions.
INTERMEDIATE ORDER — An order issued during the course of litigation that does not fully dispose of the case or a party. Distinct from a purely interlocutory order in some jurisdictions, though the terms are often used interchangeably.
Why It Matters in Research
The word "intermediate" is a modifier, not a standalone term, and its meaning is entirely context-dependent. Researchers must identify which legal domain they are in before the word carries any research value.
In constitutional research, intermediate scrutiny is the critical analytical framework for gender discrimination claims and certain other quasi-suspect classifications. The doctrine is not static — early formulations were softer than the current standard, and the evolution from rational basis toward something stricter, and then toward a formalized middle tier, is visible in the case law from the early 1970s onward. Historical sources predating that development will not reflect the doctrine at all.
In probate research, intermediate account is a jurisdiction-specific term. Surrogate court practice in New York, for example, has formal requirements for intermediate accountings that differ from states with less structured probate procedures. Black's 2nd Ed. specifically flags New York practice, which is a useful indicator that this is not uniform common law usage.
In mortgage research, intermediate theory is a minority rule that appears in a small number of states. Researchers using general treatises on mortgage law may encounter it described as a historical curiosity or a doctrinal outlier. The real estate encyclopedia entry in Law Mind addresses the three-theory framework directly and is the recommended starting point.
When reading historical legal sources, watch for "intermediate" used loosely to mean merely "intervening" or "occurring in the middle of proceedings" — as Black's 2nd Ed. itself opens with — rather than in any of the technically precise modern senses. Pre-twentieth century sources will not use "intermediate scrutiny" in any constitutional sense, as the doctrine did not exist. Context dating is essential.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) defines intermediate primarily as a procedural descriptor: "intervening; interposed during the progress of a suit, proceeding, business, etc., or between its beginning and end." The entry then moves immediately to intermediate account in probate law, which Black's specifically grounds in New York surrogate practice — an account filed to disclose the acts of the fiduciary between initial and final accounting.
What Black's 2nd Ed. does not address: intermediate scrutiny (the constitutional standard), intermediate theory in mortgage law, or intermediate orders as a distinct appellate category. This is entirely expected. The constitutional doctrine postdates this edition by decades. The absence of these usages in historical dictionaries is itself informative — it confirms that the dominant modern legal uses of the term are twentieth-century developments layered onto a word with a much older and more general procedural meaning.
Researchers should not read Black's 2nd Ed. silence on intermediate scrutiny as evidence that the doctrine did not exist at the time of research; they should read it as evidence that the dictionary was compiled before the doctrine's development.
Jurisdictional Note
Intermediate scrutiny as a federal constitutional standard applies uniformly in federal Equal Protection analysis, but state constitutions may impose different standards for gender classifications, sometimes stricter. Intermediate mortgage theory applies in only a minority of states; most jurisdictions follow either lien theory or title theory, making it essential to confirm which doctrine governs before relying on intermediate theory analysis.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
The Law Mind Constitutional Law Encyclopedia: Sex Discrimination — Intermediate Scrutiny and Gender Classification
The Law Mind Real Estate Transactions & Construction Encyclopedia: Mortgage Law — Creation, Elements, and the Lien Theory vs. Title Theory vs. Intermediate Theory