Definition
In feudal law, ococasio referred to two related but distinct burdens imposed within the lord-vassal relationship: (1) a tribute or exaction levied by a lord upon his vassals or tenants to meet the lord's financial necessity; and (2) hindrance, trouble, or vexation visited upon a tenant through suit or legal proceedings. The term thus captures both a fiscal and a procedural form of feudal imposition.
---
Common Confusion
The two meanings of ococasio — tribute and vexation by suit — are conceptually distinct but historically intertwined. Feudal lords possessed wide latitude to burden tenants in both senses: demanding irregular monetary levies when financial need arose, and pursuing legal actions that themselves constituted a form of harassment or coercion. Researchers should not assume the term refers exclusively to financial exaction; context in the source document will determine which burden is at issue.
---
Why It Matters in Research
Ococasio is a term of narrow historical application. It appears almost exclusively in sources dealing with feudal tenure and obligation, and its practical significance is largely antiquarian by the time of Black's second edition (1910). Researchers are unlikely to encounter it in case law or statutory text; it surfaces most in treatises on feudal land tenure, medieval legal history, and comparative studies of lord-vassal relationships.
The companion term ococasionari — meaning to be charged or burdened with payments or occasional penalties — indicates that ococasio gave rise to a recognized category of obligatory liability, not merely an informal practice. This verbal form suggests that the imposition had legal standing within the feudal framework, making it relevant to historians examining the origins of taxation, distress, and the duty to respond to a lord's financial claims.
Researchers working in early English legal history should note that ococasio belongs to a broader family of feudal exactions — alongside aids, tallage, and scutage — that were progressively curtailed or formalized through instruments like Magna Carta. Understanding the taxonomy of these burdens is essential for tracing the evolution of property rights and the limits on seigneurial power.
No significant corpus of modern case law turns on this term. Its research value lies in historical and comparative legal analysis, not in contemporary doctrine.
---
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) is the sole source in the Law Mind corpus for this term, and its entry is spare: tribute imposed by a lord for his necessity; hindrance or vexation by suit; with ococasionari noted as the verbal form meaning to be charged with such payments or penalties. Black's does not elaborate on the procedural mechanics of ococasio, its relationship to other feudal exactions, or the geographic scope of its use. The entry reflects the treatment common to Black's handling of feudal Latin terms — definitionally adequate but without historical depth or citation to primary sources. Researchers needing fuller treatment should consult specialized works on feudal tenure and medieval Latin legal terminology. No divergence among dictionary sources is possible here given single-source coverage.
---
Jurisdictional Note
Ococasio is a term of feudal law without application in modern common law jurisdictions. Its relevance is confined to historical legal systems, principally those of medieval England and the continental feudal traditions from which English tenure law developed.
---