Definition
A writ of respite — specifically, a writ used to secure a delay or postponement in legal proceedings. The phrase derives from Latin and is closely associated with the broader category of writs commanding that a matter be held or stayed. In practice, itis habendo functioned as a procedural instrument directing that a party be allowed a period of forbearance before further action was required or enforced. It belongs to the historical family of common law writs that courts issued to manage the timing and sequencing of legal process.
Common Confusion
Itis habendo is easily confused with the broader class of respite writs, and its name alone gives little indication of its function to a modern researcher. It should not be conflated with habeas corpus or other "habendo" constructions in Latin writs, which serve entirely different purposes. The shared Latin root "habendo" (meaning "to have" or "to hold") appears in multiple writ names across the common law tradition; the specific function of each writ must be verified against its particular form and procedural context.
Why It Matters in Research
This term will appear almost exclusively in historical legal materials — English common law writ practice and early American procedural records predating the Field Code reforms of the mid-nineteenth century and the later consolidation of civil procedure under rules-based systems. Researchers encountering itis habendo in primary sources should treat it as a marker of pre-reform procedural law, where the writ system governed case management functions now handled by motion practice or court scheduling orders.
The single American case reference in Rapalje & Lawrence — 62 Pa. St. 55 — is the most direct doctrinal anchor available and represents one of the rare instances where an American court engaged with this writ by name. Pennsylvania reports from this era frequently preserved common law writ terminology longer than other jurisdictions, making Pennsylvania sources a productive avenue for contextualizing this and similar archaic writs.
Researchers working in the Law Mind corpus should be alert to variant spellings and Latin abbreviations; historical clerks and reporters were inconsistent in transcribing writ names, and itis habendo may appear in truncated or anglicized forms in court records and legal periodicals.
Because the writ is procedural rather than substantive, its significance in a given document is often contextual: its presence signals a contested timing issue, a request for delay, or a dispute about when enforcement could proceed. Understanding the underlying dispute — not just the writ's name — will usually be the more productive research focus.
Historical Dictionary Support
Rapalje & Lawrence is the only historical dictionary source in the Law Mind shelf that captures this term, and their treatment is characteristically terse: "A writ for respiting a respite," with a single citation to 62 Pa. St. 55. The circularity of the definition ("respiting a respite") reflects the layered nature of common law writ practice, where one procedural instrument could be used to extend or modify the effect of another. This formulation suggests that itis habendo was not a primary writ but a secondary or derivative one — invoked after a first respite had already been granted and further delay was sought.
No other historical dictionaries in the standard legal lexicography tradition — Bouvier, Black, or Burrill — appear to have given this term significant independent treatment, which is consistent with its narrow procedural function and its disappearance from active legal practice well before the twentieth century. Rapalje & Lawrence's inclusion of it reflects their effort to document the full range of historical writ terminology for practitioners and courts still occasionally encountering such language in older precedents.
Jurisdictional Note
This writ is a product of English common law and was received into American colonial and early state practice. The Pennsylvania citation in Rapalje & Lawrence suggests it had at least some formal recognition in that jurisdiction. By the late nineteenth century, writ practice of this kind had been substantially displaced across American jurisdictions by statutory and rule-based procedure.