Definition
A short summons is an expedited form of process issued against certain categories of debtors — typically those who are absconding, fraudulent, or nonresident — that carries a shortened return period compared to an ordinary writ of summons. Where a standard summons might allow a defendant weeks to appear or respond, a short summons compresses that window, reflecting the legislature's judgment that the plaintiff's ability to obtain jurisdiction over such a debtor is at special risk of being lost entirely through delay.
The mechanism is purely statutory. It exists only in jurisdictions that have enacted specific authority for it, and its availability, procedural requirements, and return periods vary by state.
Common Confusion
"Short summons" should not be confused with a shortened summons issued by court order under modern rules of civil procedure, where a judge reduces a response period for cause. A short summons is a distinct form of process defined and authorized by statute for a specific class of defendants; it is not a general judicial discretionary tool. The two may produce similar practical results — an accelerated appearance date — but their legal basis, triggering conditions, and procedural consequences differ.
Why It Matters in Research
The short summons is a creature of 19th-century American state practice, and researchers should approach it accordingly. Several practical points bear emphasis:
First, availability is strictly jurisdictional and statutory. Black's both editions flag this explicitly: the device existed in "some of the states." There was never a uniform federal analog, and the specific states that authorized it, the return periods they prescribed, and the qualifying debtor categories varied considerably. A researcher cannot assume that doctrine from one state's short summons cases transfers cleanly to another.
Second, the device is largely historical. Modern civil procedure — shaped by the Federal Rules and their state counterparts — has replaced much of the old summons taxonomy with unified process rules and emergency relief mechanisms such as attachment, temporary restraining orders, and expedited service. Researchers encountering "short summons" in primary sources from the 19th or early 20th century should resist reading modern procedural concepts back into those materials.
Third, the qualifying categories ("absconding, fraudulent, or nonresident debtor") connect the short summons to a broader cluster of historical procedural devices aimed at debtors who might evade jurisdiction. Researchers working in this area should also track contemporaneous statutes on foreign attachment, non-resident debtor process, and fraudulent debtor proceedings, as courts sometimes used these tools interchangeably or in combination.
Fourth, because the short summons was designed to compress time precisely when a debtor was fleeing or concealing assets, due process questions about notice and opportunity to be heard were live issues in states that used it. Research into constitutional challenges to short summons statutes may require consultation of state constitutional history, not just case law.
Historical Dictionary Support
The two Black's Law Dictionary entries — first and second editions — are essentially identical, and both are brief. They establish the core elements: statutory authorization, limitation to absconding, fraudulent, or nonresident debtors, and a return period shorter than that of an ordinary summons. Neither edition elaborates on which states authorized the device, what the typical return period was, or how courts interpreted the qualifying debtor categories. This uniformity across editions suggests the term had reached definitional stability by the time of Black's second edition, even as the underlying state statutes it described were anything but uniform.
The brevity of both entries is itself informative: the short summons was a well-enough understood term of art that Black's felt no need to elaborate, but it was also sufficiently jurisdiction-specific that a general dictionary could not do more than sketch its outlines. Researchers should not treat Black's definitions as a substitute for the authorizing statute of the jurisdiction at issue.
Jurisdictional Note
The short summons was a state law device with no federal counterpart and no uniform national standard. States that authorized it set their own return periods and defined qualifying debtor classes by statute. The device has largely disappeared from modern procedural codes, but it remains relevant to historical research in states with active 19th-century debtor-creditor litigation.