Definition
Post terminum (Latin: "after the term") is a historical term of English procedural law referring to the return of a writ after both the specific day assigned for its return and after the close of the court term in which it was issued. The late return triggered an obligation to pay a fee — and in some usages, post terminum referred to that fee itself rather than to the condition of lateness.
The phrase operates at the intersection of writ practice and court term structure: English common law courts sat in discrete terms (Hilary, Easter, Trinity, Michaelmas), and procedural deadlines were calibrated accordingly. A writ returned after its assigned return day but still within term was late; a writ returned after the term had closed entirely was post terminum — a more serious procedural default with its own fee consequence.
Common Confusion
Post terminum is occasionally confused with a simple late return of a writ. The distinction is meaningful: a writ could be returned after its assigned return day but still within the term. Post terminum required that both thresholds be missed — the return day and the term itself. Burrill explicitly preserves this dual requirement. The fee due post terminum was a distinct charge from any penalty for ordinary tardiness within term.
Why It Matters in Research
This is a narrow term of historical English writ practice with no live application in modern American or English civil procedure. Researchers will encounter it almost exclusively in pre-nineteenth-century primary sources, in commentaries on abolished English writs, or in treatise discussions of the old term-based court calendar.
The primary research trap is anachronism: the concept depends entirely on the term structure of the old common law courts, which was abolished in England by the Judicature Acts of 1873–1875 and never fully adopted in American practice. Any source using post terminum in a context after that period is either citing historical authority or using the phrase loosely.
A secondary trap involves the dual meaning identified by Burrill: post terminum can describe either the procedural condition (the late return itself) or the fee owed as a consequence. When reading historical sources, context determines which meaning is operative. This ambiguity does not appear in Rapalje & Lawrence, which gives only the bare translation, making Burrill the more reliable source for full interpretive scope.
Researchers working on the history of writs of entry, return procedures, or fee structures of the English common law courts will find post terminum appearing in proximity to discussions of essoins, defaults, and the mechanics of original and judicial writs. The Cowell citation repeated across sources (John Cowell's Interpreter, 1607) is the apparent root authority and worth consulting directly for period context.
Historical Dictionary Support
The four source dictionaries converge cleanly. Black's First and Second Editions are substantively identical on this entry, both tracing the definition to Cowell and noting the fee consequence. Burrill adds the additional gloss that post terminum could refer to the fee itself — a refinement the Black's entries omit. Rapalje & Lawrence reduce the entry to its Latin translation only, offering no procedural context.
No source disagrees on the core meaning. The notable gap is that none of the dictionaries contextualizes the term within the broader abolition of English term practice or explains what became of the concept after the Judicature Acts. Researchers should not infer from the dictionary entries that the practice survived into modern procedure — these dictionaries were documenting historical usage, not current law.