Definition
A Latin plea meaning "he has fully accounted." In an action of account-render (also called an action of account), plene computavit is the defendant's affirmative plea asserting that he has already rendered a full and complete accounting to the plaintiff and therefore owes nothing further. The plea operates as a confession and avoidance: the defendant does not deny that he held the plaintiff's assets or occupied a position requiring accountability, but asserts that the obligation to account has been satisfied.
Common Confusion
Plene computavit should not be confused with the judgment quod computet, which is the opposite procedural moment: the court's order that the defendant must account. Where quod computet marks the plaintiff's success at the first stage of the proceeding, plene computavit is the defendant's attempt to prevent that outcome by asserting the accounting has already been rendered. The two phrases appear in the same procedural context and are sometimes found near each other in historical sources, creating a risk of conflation.
Why It Matters in Research
Plene computavit is a term of art belonging almost exclusively to the old common-law action of account-render, an action that had largely fallen into disuse in American courts by the mid-nineteenth century as equity and later statutory accounting procedures displaced it. Researchers encountering this term in historical sources should understand they are operating within a procedural framework that no longer functions as an independent cause of action in most jurisdictions.
The plea appears primarily in English and early American common-law pleading materials. Because the action of account-render itself is rarely treated in modern secondary sources, corpus researchers working in nineteenth-century case law or pleading treatises may find plene computavit used without explanation, on the assumption that readers would recognize it. Cross-referencing entries on account-render, accounting in equity, and the general structure of pleading in confession and avoidance will be essential to understanding how this plea functioned procedurally.
Note also that the action of account-render involved a two-stage proceeding: first, a judgment that the defendant must account (quod computet); second, the accounting itself before auditors. Plene computavit would be entered at or before the first stage, as a plea in bar preventing the court from ordering the accounting at all. A researcher who misreads the plea as appearing at the second stage will misunderstand the procedural posture of any case in which it appears.
Historical Dictionary Support
Both Black's and Rapalje & Lawrence agree on the core meaning: "he has fully accounted," a plea in the action of account-render asserting complete prior accounting. The definitions are functionally identical and brief, reflecting the term's narrow procedural scope. Neither source elaborates on the mechanics of the plea or its relationship to the two-stage structure of the underlying action, which limits their utility as standalone guides. Rapalje & Lawrence appends a separate entry for plenipotentiary immediately following, indicating the entries appear in alphabetical sequence and are unrelated.
Neither historical source addresses what evidence would be required to sustain the plea, how it interacted with pleading rules requiring particularity, or how courts distinguished a complete accounting from a partial one. For those questions, researchers will need to consult English common-law pleading treatises of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, where the action of account-render received fuller treatment.
Jurisdictional Note
The action of account-render, and with it the plea of plene computavit, was more fully developed in English common-law courts than in American practice, where equity courts handled accounting disputes earlier and more extensively. American sources treating this plea are sparse and largely derivative of English authority.