Definition
A Latin term from old English law meaning "to rescue." It appears in legal records and writs in conjugated forms: *rescussit* (he rescued) and *rescusserunt* (they rescued). The term is not a substantive doctrine but a verb of action appearing in the formal Latin pleading and writ language of the English common law. Its presence in a legal document signals that an act of rescue — typically the wrongful retaking of distrained goods or a prisoner lawfully in custody — was alleged to have occurred.
Common Confusion
RESCUTERE should not be confused with the modern substantive noun RESCUE as a legal cause of action or defense. The Latin form is procedural and pleading-specific: it appears as an allegation within writs, not as the name of an independent doctrine. Researchers encountering the term in original records are looking at the Latin verb form, not a reference to any rule or remedy by that name.
Why It Matters in Research
This term is unlikely to appear in modern legal materials; its research significance is entirely historical. Researchers working with original English writ registers, plea rolls, or early common law records — particularly those predating the shift from Law Latin to English pleading — will encounter *rescussit* and *rescusserunt* as standard verbal allegations in writs involving unlawful rescue of distrained property or escaped prisoners. Misreading these conjugated forms, or failing to recognize them as inflections of *rescutere*, can cause confusion about the subject matter of a writ.
The underlying act — rescue of distrained goods — was a recognized wrong at common law giving rise to an action of rescous or replevin-adjacent remedies. The Latin verb appears precisely because the Register of Writs (*Registrum Originale*) set the formulaic language for such actions. Researchers should look to the surrounding writ language to determine whether the rescue alleged involves goods (distrained chattels retaken before impounding) or persons (a prisoner retaken from an officer), as the procedural consequences differed.
No modern legal system uses this Latin form, and it will not appear in statute or case law after the abolition of Law Latin in English pleading in the eighteenth century.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary provides the sole entry among the shelf sources. Burrill's treatment is characteristically spare: he gives the Latin, identifies it as old English law, translates it as "to rescue," and supplies the two conjugated forms with citations to the *Registrum Originale* (folios 117 and 118) and to 3 Peere Williams 484. This is sufficient for identification purposes but offers no doctrinal context — Burrill does not explain the nature of the writs in which these forms appeared or distinguish between rescue of goods and rescue of persons.
The citations Burrill provides are reliable anchors. The *Registrum Originale* (Register of Original Writs) was the authoritative collection of writ forms used by the English common law courts; its folios 117–118 would contain the formulaic writs in which *rescussit* and *rescusserunt* appeared as standard allegations. Researchers needing the fuller procedural context should consult the Register directly alongside commentary in Fitzherbert's *Natura Brevium* or Blackstone's treatment of distress and replevin.
No other shelf source addresses this term. The gap is unsurprising given that *rescutere* is a term of form rather than substance — it records what happened in a pleading formula rather than naming a rule of law.