RECORDATUR - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

RECORDATURAuthored

The Law Mind • 782 words

Definition

Latin: "It is recorded." A term from old English practice with two related but distinct procedural uses:

1. A formal entry made upon a court record to prevent any subsequent alteration of it. The entry served as a protective notation, fixing the record as of a particular moment and placing it beyond unilateral revision.

2. An order or allowance confirming that the verdict returned on the nisi prius roll be formally recorded — effectively ratifying and making permanent the trial court's proceedings.

A third usage, less frequently encountered in English practice, describes a writ by which a cause was removed from a county court or local court to one of the courts at Westminster Hall. The writ commanded the sheriff to cause the plaint to be recorded and to transmit that record to the superior court. This removal function gave the writ its name: the operative word of the command was that the plaint be "recorded" in the superior court.

Common Confusion

Researchers occasionally conflate recordatur with certiorari as instruments of removal. Both could transfer proceedings to a superior court, but the mechanisms and contexts differed. Certiorari was the dominant general writ of removal; recordatur was a specialized, largely obsolete instrument associated with the particular procedural form of removing plaints from inferior courts by commanding their enrollment. The two are not interchangeable, and recordatur's removal function had largely disappeared from active use well before the nineteenth century.

Why It Matters in Research

Recordatur is a term of purely historical significance. It appears in English practice sources from the medieval period through the eighteenth century and surfaces in American sources primarily in connection with explanations of older English procedure. Researchers working in colonial-era court records, early common law treatises, or materials touching nisi prius practice may encounter the term in any of its three senses without clear contextual labeling.

The protective-entry meaning is the most frequently cited in American dictionary sources. The nisi prius confirmation meaning is procedurally important when reading trial records and post-trial proceedings in the English common law courts, because it marks the point at which a verdict became the court's formal and unalterable record. Misreading a recordatur entry as a mere clerical notation, rather than as a legally significant act of record-fixing, can lead to errors in reconstructing the procedural history of a case.

The removal-writ meaning is primarily of interest to legal historians examining the jurisdiction and process of county courts and the superior courts at Westminster. Blackstone's discussion in Book III and Stephen's Pleading are the standard reference points; researchers should go to those primary sources rather than relying solely on dictionary glosses, which compress and sometimes conflate the distinct functions of the writ.

No modern American procedural equivalent exists. The functions served by recordatur — record authentication, verdict enrollment, and inferior-court removal — are now handled by entirely different mechanisms: rules governing entry of judgment, certified copies, and statutory removal procedures.

Historical Dictionary Support

The historical dictionaries are in general agreement on the core protective-entry definition, all tracing it to the same authority: 1 Lord Raymond 211. Burrill's entry is the most precise in isolating this meaning, defining recordatur strictly as an entry made to prevent alteration of the record and giving the Latin translation directly. Black's first edition reproduces this definition and adds the nisi prius confirmation meaning, drawing on Rapalje & Lawrence for the latter. The second edition of Black's provides less direct coverage of recordatur itself, appearing in surrounding material on courts of record rather than as a dedicated entry.

The removal-writ meaning appears in Black's first edition with reference to Blackstone and Stephen, but is absent or underemphasized in Burrill and Rapalje & Lawrence, suggesting that by the late nineteenth century this usage was considered sufficiently archaic to warrant only passing treatment. Researchers relying on dictionary sources alone will find the removal function inadequately explained; Blackstone's Commentaries (Book III, ch. 8) and Stephen's Pleading remain the necessary supplements.

None of the historical dictionaries flags the potential for confusion among the three distinct uses of the term, which is itself a research hazard when the term appears without procedural context.

Jurisdictional Note

Recordatur is a term of English common law practice with no independent American statutory or procedural development. Its appearance in American legal literature is almost entirely in historical or comparative contexts. Researchers should not expect American jurisdictions to have assigned the term local procedural content.

RECORDATURmain

Black's Law Dictionary • 1891

Bounty court to one of the courts of West- minster Hall. 3 Bl. Comm. 149; 3 Steph. Pl. 522, 666. So termed from the emphatic words of the old writ, by which the sheriff was commanded to cause the plaint to be re- corded, and to have the record before the su- perior court. Reg. Orig. 5b.

RECORDATURmain

Black's Law Dictionary • 1891

In old English prac- tice. An entry made upon a record, in or- der to prevent any alteration of it. 1 Ld. Raym 211. An order or allowance that the verdict re- turned on the nisi prius roll be recorded. RECORDER, v. L. Fr. In Norman law To recite or testify on recollection what had previously passed in court. This was the duty of the judges and other principal per- song who presided at the placitum; thence called "recordeurs." Steph. Pl., Append. note 11. RECORDER, n. In old English law. A barrister or other person learned in the law, whom the mayor or other magistrate of any city or town corporate, having jurisdic- tion or a court of record within their pre- cincts, associated to him for his better direc- tion in matters of justice and proceedings according to law. Cowell. The name "recorder" is also given to a magistrate, in the judicial systems of some of the states, who has a criminal jurisdiction analogous to that of a police judge or other committing magistrate, and usually a limited civil jurisdiction, and sometimes authority conferred by statute in special classes of pro- ceedings. Also an officer appointed to make record or enrolment of deeds and other legal instru- ments authorized by law to be recorded.

RECORDATURmain

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

to be called in question. Every court of record has authority to fine and imprison for contempt of its authority. 3 Broom & H. Comm. 21, 30 —Debts of record. Those which appear to be due by the evidence of a court of record; such as a judgment, recognizance, etc.— = mution of record. Incompleteness of the reccord sent up on Appeal. DIMINUTION.— Matter of reco See MaTTER.—Nul tiel record. See NuL.—Of record. See that title. —Pocket record. A statute so called. Brownl. or open to Donnell, 92 Orr, 71 Cal. 43 chancery were designated by this title, whose duty it was to file bills brought to them for that purpose. Business was distributed among them aecerane to the initial letter of the surname of the first plaintiff in a suit. Hunt, ; These officers are now transferred to the hig ourt of justice under the judicature acts.— eord commission. The name of a board of commissioners appointed for the purpose of searching out. classifying, indexing, or publish: ing the pune records of a state or county —Reco of prius. In English law. An official copy or transcript of the p - ings in an action, entered on parchment. an “sealed and passed,” as it is termed, at thé roper office; it serves as a warrant to the udge to try the cause. and is the only decument at which he can judicially look for information as to the nature of the proceedings and the issues joined. Brown.—Title of reeord. A title to real estate, evidenced and provable by one or more conveyances or other instruments all of which are duly entered on the public land records.—Trial by record. A species of trial adopted for determining the existence or non-existence of a record. When a record is asserted by one party to exist, and the opposite party denies its existence under the oo of a traverse that there is no such record maining in court as alleged, and issue is join ed thereon, this is called an “issue of nul ttel record,” and in such case the eourt awards a trial by inspection and examination of , the record. Upon this the party affirming its exist ence is bound to produce it in court on a day given for the purpose, and, if he fails to do 80, judgment is given for his adversary. Co. Litt. 117b, 260a; 3 Bl. Comm. 331. . ni Recorda sunt vestigia vetustatis ef veritatis. Records are vestiges of antiquity and truth. 2 Rolle, 296. In old English practice. An entry made upon a record, in order te prevent any akeration of it. 1 Ld. Raym. 211. An order or allowance that the verdict returned on the nisi prius roll be recorded. RECORDER, v. UL. Fr. In Norman law. ’ To recite or testify on recollection what had previously passed in court. This was the duty of the judges and other principal persons who presided at the placitum; thence called “recordeurs.” Steph. Pl., Append. note 11, RECORDER, . In old English law. / barrister or other person learned in the law, whom the mayor or other magistrate of any city or town corporate, having jurisdiction or a court of record within their precincts, associated to him for his better direction in matters of justice and proceedings according to law. Cowell. ‘ The name “recorder” is also given to a magistrate, in the judicial systems of some of the states, who has a criminal jurisdiction analogous to that of a police judge or other committing magistrate, and usually a limited civil jurisdiction, and sometimes authority conferred by statute in special classes of proceedings. Also an officer appointed to make record or enrolment of deeds and other legal instruments authorized by law to be recorded.

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