Definition
A term from French law denoting a judicial seizure or sequestration of property. Saisie is the general heading for a family of distinct legal procedures, each tailored to different circumstances of seizure: the type of property involved, the person holding it, and the purpose of the taking all determine which form applies. The term entered common law legal literature primarily through Louisiana and other jurisdictions with civil law roots, and appears in historical English legal writing as a descriptive label for analogous Continental procedures.
Recognized subtypes include:
1. Saisie-arrêt — An attachment of property held by a third party. Functionally comparable to garnishment in common law systems: a creditor intercepts property or debts belonging to the debtor but in the possession or control of someone else.
2. Saisie-exécution — An execution procedure directed at the debtor's movable property. Black's describes it as resembling the common law writ of fieri facias — a post-judgment mechanism by which the creditor places the debtor's movables under the custody of the law for purposes of satisfying the debt.
Common Language
Wiktionary: "saisie" (French) — seizure, attachment, confiscation; also used in computing to mean data entry or input.
Webster's 1913: Not entered as an English headword; appears in legal and French-language contexts only.
Editorial note: In modern general French usage, saisie has expanded well beyond its legal meaning and commonly refers to keyboard or data input. A researcher encountering the word in a non-legal French source should not assume a legal or procedural meaning. In legal contexts — particularly Louisiana, Quebec, and historical civil law materials — the term retains its specific procedural meaning and should be read accordingly.
Recognized Forms
/SUBTYPES
— Saisie-arrêt: Attachment of property in the hands of a third person; the civil law analog to common law garnishment.
— Saisie-exécution: Execution against movable property; the civil law analog to fieri facias or levy of execution.
— Additional subtypes exist in French and Louisiane civil procedure (including saisie-brandon for growing crops, saisie-revendication for recovery of specific property, and saisie-foraine for property of nonresident debtors), though these are not fully elaborated in Black's 2nd edition.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers working in Louisiana law, Quebec law, or historical civil law materials will encounter saisie in primary sources as a technical term of art — not mere description. Treating it as a synonym for generic "seizure" will cause misreading: the subtype matters because different procedural rules, notice requirements, and defenses attach to each form.
In historical Louisiana jurisprudence, saisie-arrêt is a distinct cause of action with its own procedural requirements, not merely a synonym for garnishment. Conflating the two can produce anachronistic readings of pre-codification decisions.
Black's 2nd edition entry is truncated — the saisie-exécution definition ends mid-sentence in the source material. Researchers relying on that edition should consult the fuller entry in later editions of Black's or a dedicated civil law dictionary such as Bouvier's or a Louisiana practice treatise to confirm the complete procedural definition.
The term is essentially absent from English common law sources outside of comparative or historical discussion. If it appears in an English equity or admiralty source, the author is likely drawing a civil law analogy rather than applying a domestic rule.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) treats saisie as a French law term and supplies a brief family of subtypes, but the entry is plainly condensed and the saisie-exécution definition is cut off mid-description. This is a known limitation of early Black's editions when handling civil law terminology.
No entry appears in Webster's 1913, reflecting the term's status as legal-technical rather than general English vocabulary. Its absence from common English dictionaries of that era underscores that it traveled into American legal usage almost exclusively through Louisiana's civil law inheritance rather than through general legal borrowing.
Bouvier's Law Dictionary — though not supplied in the source material here — historically provided fuller treatment of French civil law procedure terms than Black's and is the better reference for the complete taxonomy of saisie subtypes. Researchers working extensively in this area should treat Black's 2nd edition as a starting point only.
Jurisdictional Note
Saisie as a live procedural term is primarily relevant in Louisiana and Quebec, where civil law tradition directly informs procedural codes. In other U.S. jurisdictions, the term appears only in comparative, historical, or conflict-of-laws analysis. Louisiana's Code of Civil Procedure has modernized and renamed many of these procedures, so the French terminology may appear in older cases but not in current statutory text.