OAPIAS - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

OAPIASAuthored

The Law Mind • 793 words

Definition

A writ commanding an officer to take (literally, "that you take") the body of a named individual into custody. Oapias is an archaic or variant spelling of *capias*, the Latin term designating a family of writs whose common feature is the arrest or attachment of a person. The writ directs a sheriff or other officer to seize the named party — defendant, debtor, or accused — and bring them before the court.

Because several distinct writs share this root command, "capias" (and by extension "oapias") functions as a genus name covering multiple species of process rather than designating a single, uniform instrument.

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Common Language

This is pure legal Latin with no meaningful counterpart in ordinary English. The COMMON LANGUAGE section is omitted.

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Common Confusion

OAPIAS / CAPIAS: The form "oapias" appearing in historical legal records is simply a scribal or typographical variant of *capias*. Researchers encountering "oapias" in manuscript court records, writs, or early printed sources should treat it as identical in legal meaning to *capias*. The variation reflects inconsistent orthography in historical legal documents, not a distinct writ or procedure. All substantive research should proceed under CAPIAS.

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Recognized Forms

/SUBTYPES

Because oapias is a variant spelling of capias, its recognized subtypes are those of the capias family. Historically these included:

- Capias ad respondendum — to compel appearance to answer a civil action
- Capias ad satisfaciendum — to imprison a judgment debtor until satisfaction of the judgment
- Capias ad computandum — used in actions of account to bring a defendant before the court
- Capias pro fine — to enforce payment of a fine in criminal proceedings
- Capias in criminal process — issued on indictment when the accused is not already in custody, as the standard arrest process in English practice where no statute provided otherwise

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Why It Matters in Research

The primary research value of this entry is orthographic: a researcher working through early English or American court records, plea rolls, writs, or printed abridgements may encounter the spelling "oapias" and need confirmation that it is not a distinct legal instrument. It is not. It is capias.

The larger navigational point is that *capias* itself is a moving target across centuries of common law practice. The writ's availability, scope, and the specific subtypes in active use changed substantially between the medieval period and the nineteenth century — particularly as imprisonment for debt was progressively restricted and ultimately abolished in England and most American jurisdictions. A writ form prominent in one era may be a dead letter in another.

In American jurisdictions, capias process in civil matters largely disappeared as procedural reforms replaced body attachment with in personam summons. In criminal matters, the capias (or bench warrant) survives as living process when a defendant fails to appear. Historical sources that treat capias as a routine civil remedy are describing a world that no longer exists in most U.S. courts.

Researchers using Black's 2nd Edition and other late-nineteenth-century dictionaries should note that those sources describe capias in both its surviving criminal form and its then-declining civil form. That dual treatment can mislead a researcher into assuming broader contemporary availability than actually exists.

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Historical Dictionary Support

Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) defines the term — under the standard spelling *capias* — as "That you take," identifying it as the general name for several species of writs requiring the officer to take the body of the defendant into custody, functioning as writs of attachment or arrest. Black's further notes the specific English practice use: capias is the process issued on an indictment when the person charged is not already in custody and no statute otherwise provides, citing Stephens' Commentaries (4 Steph. Comm. 383).

Black's treatment is accurate as a summary of the classical common law position but gives limited guidance on the declining civil uses or the American jurisdictional divergence that was already well advanced by the time of that edition. Researchers should treat Black's 2nd Ed. as a reliable entry point for the writ's structure and Latin meaning, while consulting jurisdiction-specific sources for its contemporary procedural status.

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Jurisdictional Note

In criminal practice, a capias (bench warrant) remains in use across virtually all American jurisdictions when a defendant fails to appear. Civil capias — arrest of a judgment debtor or pre-judgment body attachment — has been abolished or severely restricted in most states, though it survives in narrow contexts in some jurisdictions. English practice abolished imprisonment for debt in the nineteenth century, rendering civil capias process largely obsolete there as well.

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OAPIASmain

Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) • 1910

[at. “That you take.” The general name for several species of writs, the common characteristic of which is that they require the officer to take the body of the defendant into custody; they are writs of attachment or arrest. In English practice. A capias is the process on an indictment when the person charged is not in custody, and in cases not otherwise provided for by statute. 4 Steph. Comm. 383. yeioes hares ad audiendum judicium. A writ issued, in a case of misdemeanor, after the defendant has appeared and is found guilty, to bring him to hear judgment if he is not present when called. Comm. 368.—Capias ad computandum. In the action of account render, after judgment of quod computet, if the defendant refuses to appear personally before the auditors and make his account, a writ by this name may issue to compel him.—Capias ad respondendum. A judicial writ, (usually simply termed a “capias,’?) by which actions at law were frequently commenced; and which commands the sheriff to take the defendant, and him safely keep, so that he may have his body before the court on a certain day, to anew the plaintiff in the action. 3 Bl. Comm. 282; 1 Tidd, Pr. 128. The name of this writ is commonly abbreviated to ca. resp. —Capias ad satfisfaciendum. A writ of execution, (usually termed, for brevity, a ‘‘ca. sa.,’’) which a party may issue after having recovered judgment against another in certain actions at law. It commands the sheriff to take the party named, and keep him safely, so that he may have his body before the court on a certain day, to satisfy the party by whom it is issued, the damages or debt and damages recovered by the judgment. Its effect is to deprive the party taken of his liberty until he makes the satisfaction awarded. 3 Bl. Comm, 414, 415; 2 Tidd, Pr. 993, 1025; Litt. § 504; Co. Litt. 289a,; Stron vy. Linn, 5 N. J. Law, 803.—Capias ext facias. <A writ of execution issuable in England against a debtor to the crown, which commands the sheriff to “take” or arrest the body, and ‘‘cause to be extended” the lands and goods of the debtor. Man. Exch. Pr. 5.—Capias in withernam. A writ, in the nature of a renrisal, which lies for one whose goods or cattle, taken under a distress, are removed from the ’ county, so that they cannot be replevied, commanding the sheriff to seize other goods or cattle of the distrainor of equal value.—Capias pro fine. (That you take for the fine or in mercy.) Formerly, if the verdict was for the defendant, the plaintiff was adjudged to be amerced for his false claim; but. if the verdict was for the plaintiff, then in all actions vt et armis, or where the defendant, in his pleading, had falsely denied his own deed, the Judgment contained an award of a capiatur pro fine; and in all other cases the defendant was adjudged to be amerced. The insertion of the misericordia or of the capiatur in the judgment is now unnecessary. Wharton.—Capias utlagatum. (You take the outlaw.) In English practice. A writ which lies against a person who has been outlawed in an action, by which the sheriff is commanded to take him, and keep him in custody until the day of the return, and then present him to the court, there to be dealt with aoe his contempt. Reg. Orig. 1880; 3 Bl. Comm.

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