Definition
A docket notation — typically abbreviated "neither party" or "N.P." — entered in a court record to indicate that both parties to a lawsuit have agreed, by mutual consent, to withdraw from further prosecution of the case. The entry operates as a procedural disposition: by agreement, neither side will take any further action in the suit, and neither side will make any further court appearance in connection with it. The effect is to close the matter on the docket without a judgment on the merits.
The notation is a creature of practice rather than substantive law — a clerical shorthand for a consensual abandonment of litigation, distinct from a voluntary dismissal entered by one party or a dismissal with prejudice entered by the court.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): "Neither" is a standard English pronoun or adjective indicating "not one nor the other of two." "Neither party" in everyday speech simply means that neither of two persons or sides did or has something.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Webster's 1913 treats "neither" as a conjunction or pronoun indicating "not either," applied to two alternatives.
The legal meaning diverges sharply from the common meaning. In ordinary usage, "neither party" is a descriptive phrase — a way of saying something applies to no one on either side. In its legal, docket-entry sense, it is a term of art: a formal procedural notation signaling a specific agreed disposition of a case. Encountering the phrase in a court record or docket without knowing this usage could lead a researcher to treat it as mere description when it is, in fact, a dispositive entry.
Common Confusion
NEITHER PARTY vs. NOLLE PROSEQUI: Nolle prosequi is a unilateral act by the prosecuting party (typically the plaintiff or, in criminal matters, the prosecution) declaring an unwillingness to proceed. Neither party is bilateral — both sides agree to stand down. The distinction matters because nolle prosequi may preserve certain rights or have preclusive effects depending on jurisdiction and context, while neither party rests on mutual consent.
NEITHER PARTY vs. VOLUNTARY DISMISSAL: A voluntary dismissal under modern procedural rules is typically a formal filing by the plaintiff. Neither party, by contrast, is a docket notation reflecting an agreement between both sides — historically entered by the clerk or court upon stipulation — and does not necessarily correspond to the formal dismissal procedures codified in modern rules of civil procedure.
NEITHER PARTY vs. DISCONTINUANCE: Discontinuance is the broader concept of ending a suit short of judgment. Neither party is one specific docket form of discontinuance, distinguished by its bilateral, agreed character.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers working in pre-twentieth-century court records, docket books, and case files will encounter "neither party" or its abbreviation "N.P." as a docket disposition. The term belongs to a now largely obsolete vocabulary of docket entries — alongside "discontinued," "non pros.," and "settled" — that were in common use before the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (1938) and equivalent state reforms rationalized and standardized case dispositions.
Three traps for researchers:
First, the abbreviation "N.P." is ambiguous in historical records. It can stand for "neither party," "nolle prosequi," "nisi prius," or "notary public" depending on context. Docket books rarely define their abbreviations, and misreading N.P. as nolle prosequi can lead to incorrect conclusions about how and why a case ended.
Second, a neither party entry is not a judgment. It carries no res judicata effect in the full sense of a merits adjudication. Researchers tracing the legal history of a dispute who find a neither party entry should not conclude the matter was resolved on the merits — only that the parties agreed to stop litigating it, at least in that proceeding.
Third, because neither party rests on agreement, its appearance in a docket may signal a private settlement. In eras before settlement agreements were routinely filed with courts, the neither party entry may be the only surviving public record that the case resolved by compromise. Researchers pursuing the underlying transaction or dispute may need to look beyond the court file.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) defines neither party as "an abbreviated form of docket entry, meaning that, by agreement, neither of the parties will further appear in court in that suit," citing Gendron v. Hovey, 98 Me. 139, 56 Atl. 583. The definition is spare but accurate: it captures the bilateral, agreed nature of the entry and its effect as a procedural termination without adjudication.
Black's treatment reflects the term's practical, clerk-room character — it was common court-house shorthand, not a doctrinal concept requiring extended definition. Later editions of Black's substantially reduce or eliminate the entry, consistent with the term's displacement by modern procedural vocabulary. The absence of the term from contemporary legal dictionaries is itself informative: neither party is historically specific and researchers should not expect modern practitioners to recognize it as a term of art.
Jurisdictional Note
The term was used across American common law jurisdictions in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries but was never uniform in meaning or spelling. Maine, where Gendron v. Hovey arose, provides one documented instance. Researchers should treat neither party as a regional practice term and verify local docket conventions before drawing conclusions about its effect in any specific jurisdiction's records.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
The Law Mind Contracts & Commercial Law Encyclopedia: Novation — Substitution of Parties (contracts_106) — relevant where a neither party disposition may have accompanied a substitution or novation of the underlying contractual obligation.