MERCIAMENT - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

MERCIAMENTAuthored

The Law Mind • 718 words

Definition

A merciament is an archaic term for an amerciament — a financial penalty, fine, or pecuniary punishment imposed at the discretion of a court. The word derives from the same root as "mercy," reflecting the older legal concept that the amount of such a penalty was left to the discretion (the "mercy") of the court or the lord imposing it, rather than fixed by statute.

In medieval and early common law practice, a party who lost a case, caused delay, or otherwise offended the court's process was said to be "in mercy" (in misericordia) — meaning they were subject to a discretionary financial exaction. The merciament was the actual sum assessed. When judgment went for the plaintiff, the defendant was in mercy for his unjust detention of the plaintiff's right or his delay of justice. When judgment went for the defendant, the plaintiff was in mercy for his false claim or vexatious suit.

Common Confusion

MERCIAMENT and AMERCIAMENT are functionally identical terms. Merciament is simply a contracted or variant spelling of amerciament. Researchers will find both forms in historical sources, sometimes within the same document. Neither form should be confused with a modern statutory fine or court-imposed penalty, which is fixed by law rather than assessed at judicial discretion. The discretionary character of the merciament — its subjection to the court's or lord's "mercy" — was precisely what distinguished it from a fixed forfeiture or statutory penalty.

Why It Matters in Research

This term is unlikely to appear in any source postdating the early nineteenth century except as a historical reference. Researchers encountering merciament in primary sources — plea rolls, Year Books, manor court records, or early American colonial proceedings — should treat it as a synonym for amerciament and search under that head for the fuller doctrinal treatment.

The phrase "in mercy" (in misericordia) appears frequently in early court records as a formulaic recital, not always followed by an actual assessment. Researchers should be alert to the distinction between the finding that a party is in mercy and the separate act of assessing or taxing the merciament. The former is a procedural conclusion; the latter is the penalty itself.

In manor court and leet records, merciaments were a significant source of revenue and appear alongside presentments, attachments, and estreats. Researchers working in English local history records or early American colonial court records should be prepared for variant spellings: merciament, amerciament, amercement, and archaically misericordia.

The term has no modern operative legal significance. Its appearance in later legal dictionaries is purely as a historical cross-reference to amerciament.

Historical Dictionary Support

All three source dictionaries are in complete agreement: merciament is a synonym for amerciament, penalty, or fine, and all three entries are essentially identical in substance. Black's (both editions) defines it in a single clause. Rapalje & Lawrence adds the citation to Coke's Littleton (338b) and provides the more illuminating gloss — explaining that when judgment was for the plaintiff the defendant was in mercy, and when judgment was for the defendant the plaintiff was in mercy — contextualizing why the term connects to the concept of discretionary leniency.

What the historical dictionaries collectively omit is any treatment of how merciaments were assessed, estreated, or collected in practice, and they give no indication of the term's procedural significance in manor courts and hundred courts, where amerciaments were routine and documented in estreat rolls. Researchers seeking that procedural depth should turn to treatises on English local administration or works on medieval court procedure rather than the dictionary shelf.

Coke's Littleton, the authority cited by Rapalje & Lawrence, remains the most useful primary source for the conceptual relationship between mercy, discretion, and the assessment of these penalties in the common law tradition.

Encyclopedia Cross-Reference

See Law Mind Encyclopedia: Amercement; Fines and Penalties (Historical); Manor Courts and Local Jurisdiction.

MERCIAMENTmain

Rapalje & Lawrence • 1883

- An amerciament, penCo. Litt. 338 b. alty, or fine (qq. v.) MERCIMONIATUS ANGLIÆ. The impost of England upon merchandise. Cowell. MERCY.-Formerly when the judgment in an action was for the plaintiff, the defendant was said to "be in mercy" (misericordia), i. e. amerced or fined for his delay of justice; and when the judgment was for the defendant, the plaintiff was said to "be in mercy " for his false claim. The phrase has been long obsolete.-e Brown. MERCY, PREROGATIVE OF.- The executive may pardon a criminal after conviction, and without assigning any cause for so doing; but the improper exercise of the prerogative would reflect upon the government. The prerogative does not extend to exempt the accused from undergoing his prosecution. See COMMUTATION, &1; PARDON. son. 1. That operation of law which extinguishes a right by reason of its coinciding with another right, of greater legal worth, in the same person. By "operation of law" is meant that it may take place independently of the wishes or intention of the parties; and by "greater legal worth" is meant that one right in estimation of law, though not necessarily in fact, is of higher value than the other. 2. Rights of action. In the law relating to rights of action, when a person takes or acquires a remedy or security of a higher nature, in legal estimation, than the one which he already possesses for the same right, then his remedies in respect of the minor right or security merge in those attaching to the higher one. (Leake Cont. 506; Price v. Moulton, 10 Com. B. 561.) Thus, if a bond is taken for a simple contract debt, the remedy upon the simple contract is extinguished, and therefore an action for the debt must be brought on the bond; again, if judgment is recovered in such an action, the right of action on the bond is merged in the judgment, and therefore no second action can be brought on the bond. In re European Central Rail. Co., 4 Ch. D. 33. MERE MOTION, -The free and voluntary act of a party himself, without the suggestion or influence of another perThe phrase is used in letters-patent, whereby the king grants, " of his (especial grace, çertain knowledge, and) mere тоtion" (mero motu), his license, power and authority to the patentee to use and enjoy, exclusively, the new invention, the grant being assumed to be of the free and unfettered will of the sovereign. (Webst. Pat. 76, n. (d).) The expression is also applied or according to those of equity.. In the law of property, merger takes place either according to the rules of law