Definition
Laying the venue is the procedural act of designating, in the pleadings, the county or district where the plaintiff intends for the trial to take place. In common law pleading, this was accomplished by inserting a marginal notation or introductory clause in the declaration identifying the locality. The designation served both a technical and a practical function: it invoked the court's authority over the place and gave notice of where the plaintiff expected the matter to be tried.
The term belongs to the older vocabulary of common law pleading. Under modern procedure, the equivalent act is selecting and stating venue in the complaint or notice of removal — but the phrase "laying the venue" is specific to the historical pleading context and carries technical significance for researchers working in pre-code materials.
Two distinct situations arose in common law practice:
1. LOCAL VENUE: For actions tied to a specific place — trespass to land, nuisance, real property disputes — venue had to be laid in the county where the subject matter actually existed. Courts treated this as a matter of substance, not mere form, and a misstatement could be fatal.
2. TRANSITORY VENUE: For actions that could arise anywhere — assumpsit, debt, personal injury — the plaintiff had latitude to lay venue in any county, including a fictional one. Venue in transitory actions was understood to be a legal fiction, and the opposing party was generally precluded from contradicting the stated locality by traverse.
Common Confusion
Laying the venue is not the same as selecting venue under modern procedure, though they accomplish similar things. Modern venue selection is governed by statute and rule; it concerns which court has proper authority over the case as a matter of law. Laying the venue under common law pleading was a formal step within the pleading itself — a statement that could be either mandatory and jurisdictionally significant (local actions) or effectively fictional and unchallengeable (transitory actions). Researchers who import modern venue concepts into historical materials risk misreading the stakes. A defect in laying the venue in a local action was a pleading defect; modern improper venue is a waivable procedural defect governed by rule.
Do not confuse laying the venue with a venue transfer motion or with the doctrine of forum non conveniens, both of which are modern procedural mechanisms with no direct common law analog in the pleading sense.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers encounter this phrase almost exclusively in pre-code materials: English common law pleading texts, colonial and early American case reports, and 19th-century American practice guides. It disappears from active legal usage after the Field Code reforms (mid-19th century) and is absent from Federal Rules vocabulary entirely.
The critical trap is the local/transitory distinction. Historical sources treat it as fundamental, but the line between local and transitory actions was not always clear, and courts of different eras drew it differently. A researcher tracing early American real property or nuisance litigation must determine whether the action was classified as local in the relevant jurisdiction and period — because an error in laying the venue in a local action was litigated as a pleading error, not a venue challenge.
In corpus materials, laying the venue appears in pleading manuals (Chitty on Pleading is the touchstone), early American practice guides, and reported decisions resolving demurrers or errors on the venue clause. When you see the phrase in a reported case, examine whether the court is addressing a local or transitory action, and whether the challenge came by special demurrer, motion in arrest of judgment, or writ of error — the procedural vehicle tells you what kind of defect was alleged.
Modern venue research — transfers, forum selection clauses, 28 U.S.C. § 1404(a), § 1406(a) — does not require engagement with this term. It is an entry point into historical pleading, not into current doctrine.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary defines the term concisely and accurately: "Stating in the margin of a declaration the county in which the plaintiff proposes that the trial of the action shall take place." This captures the mechanical act but omits the local/transitory distinction that gave the act its legal consequence. Bouvier's simply redirects to LAY, offering no independent treatment.
Neither source discusses the fictional nature of venue in transitory actions or the difference in legal consequence between laying venue correctly versus incorrectly in local versus transitory matters. For substantive treatment, historical sources such as Chitty's Pleading and Stephen's Principles of Pleading are the appropriate references; the dictionary entries are starting points only.
The absence of meaningful Bouvier's treatment is itself a signal: Bouvier was attentive to pleading practice, and the redirect to LAY suggests the term was understood by practitioners as self-explanatory within the pleading context — not a term requiring extended definition so much as a label for a known procedural step.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
The Law Mind Civil Procedure & Evidence Encyclopedia:
— civpro_24: Venue — Transfer Under 28 USC 1406(a) and Cure of Venue Defects (modern statutory context for venue defects; contrast with common law treatment of local action venue errors)
— civpro_23: Venue — Transfer of Venue Under 28 USC 1404(a) and Forum Non Conveniens (modern doctrine; useful for understanding how far current procedure departs from the historical pleading framework)