Definition
To be in progress; to be awaiting resolution. In legal usage, an action or proceeding "pends" from the moment it is initiated until it is fully concluded. A petition pends as soon as it is filed. An action pends — or "depends," in older usage — until the judgment is finally certified and the matter is closed. The term most commonly appears in compound constructions: a matter described as "pending" is one that has been commenced but not yet concluded.
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Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): To hang down; to cause something to hang down; to arch over something; to depend or be contingent upon something.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Webster's 1913 does not record a relevant legal or general English sense under this spelling. The entry associates the word with an unrelated Indian term for oil cake.
The ordinary English sense of hanging or depending physically — something suspended, waiting, unresolved — carries directly into the legal meaning and is not a trap. The legal use formalizes the metaphor: a proceeding "hangs" open, unresolved, between initiation and final disposition. Researchers moving between lay and legal sources will find the concepts consistent, though the precise procedural boundaries of when something begins and stops "pending" are technical matters with legal consequence.
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Common Confusion
PEND vs. PENDING: "Pend" as a verb is the root form; "pending" is both the present participle (an action is pending) and the adjective most commonly encountered in legal documents. Researchers will rarely see "pend" in isolation in modern legal writing — its primary significance is as the root that generates "pending," "pendency," "lis pendens," and related terms.
PENDING ACTION vs. DEPEND: Anderson's notes that an action is "pending or depending" until final judgment. "Depending" is the older form, common in historical sources especially in English and early American case law. Researchers encountering "depending action" in older reports should read it as synonymous with "pending action."
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Why It Matters in Research
The verb "pend" itself is rarely the research target; its importance is structural. Understanding what it means for an action to pend — and precisely when that status begins and ends — is essential for several lines of research.
First, timing questions: many procedural rules, statutes of limitations, and notice requirements are triggered by or measured against when an action is "pending." A petition pends from filing, not from service or from a court's acknowledgment. This matters in historical sources where the triggering moment was sometimes disputed.
Second, the plea of "another action pending": Anderson identifies this as a plea in abatement — a procedural defense asserting that a prior suit on the same cause, between the same parties, is already before a court. Researchers working with historical pleading practice will encounter this doctrine frequently. It requires identity of parties and subject matter and was a precursor to modern doctrines of claim preclusion and res judicata. The plea was disfavored in equity and treated differently across common law jurisdictions.
Third, lis pendens: "Pend" is the root of lis pendens — literally, "suit pending." The doctrine that a pending action constitutes constructive notice to third parties regarding affected property flows directly from the concept that the suit's pendency has legal consequences beyond the immediate parties. Researchers must distinguish between lis pendens as a common law doctrine and lis pendens as a recorded statutory notice, which are different in operation and historical development.
In historical sources, watch for loose use of "depending" where modern sources say "pending." The terms are equivalent, but their interchangeable use across centuries can complicate keyword searching.
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Historical Dictionary Support
Anderson's is the sole historical dictionary source here and provides a compact, reliable entry. Three points are worth noting.
Anderson correctly ties pendency to the moment of filing, not to service or appearance — a distinction that had practical importance under historical pleading rules where timing of commencement varied by court.
The treatment of "another action pending" as a plea in abatement situates the term within the formal structure of common law pleading. Anderson cross-references lis pendens and pendens separately, indicating these were treated as distinct (if related) entries in the legal vocabulary of the period.
What Anderson does not address: the question of when pendency ends. Modern sources draw this line at final judgment and exhaustion of appeals; historical practice was less uniform, and some courts treated pendency as ending at entry of judgment even before the time for appeal expired. Researchers working in appellate procedure history should not assume Anderson's formulation covers that question.
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Jurisdictional Note
The basic concept — that an action is pending from commencement until final disposition — is uniform across common law jurisdictions. The operative significance of pendency, however, varies: when lis pendens notice must be recorded, which courts require actual filing versus docketing to establish pendency, and how "another action pending" functions as a defense all differ by jurisdiction and era.
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Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
civpro_120: Lis Pendens and Notice of Pending Action (The Law Mind Civil Procedure & Evidence Encyclopedia)
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