Definition
A Latin phrase meaning "without this." In pleading, *sine hoc* functioned as a formula of traverse — a denial of specific facts alleged by the opposing party. It operated identically to *absque hoc*, the more commonly used term, and the two were interchangeable in practice. The phrase introduced a special traverse, permitting a party to deny a particular averment in the opponent's pleading while tendering an issue for the court to resolve on that specific point.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers encountering *sine hoc* in historical pleadings, case reports, or treatises should treat it as a direct synonym for *absque hoc* and consult sources under that heading for substantive analysis. The phrase appears most frequently in older English common law records and early American pleading manuals, where Latin formulae were still in active use. By the mid-nineteenth century, code pleading reforms — beginning with the Field Code in New York (1848) and spreading through American jurisdictions — eliminated Latin traverse formulae from practice entirely, so *sine hoc* and *absque hoc* alike vanish from pleading records after that period. A researcher working in pre-reform records should recognize the phrase as a technical signal that the pleader is entering a special traverse, not a general denial. Its absence from most modern legal dictionaries reflects its obsolescence, not obscurity — it was a term of art in active use during the era of common law pleading.
Historical Dictionary Support
Bouvier's is the primary historical source for this term in American legal reference, and his treatment is minimal but precise: *sine hoc* is identified as formerly used in pleading as equivalent to *absque hoc*. The brevity is itself instructive — Bouvier does not develop the term independently but immediately redirects to *absque hoc*, signaling that even by the mid-nineteenth century *sine hoc* was the secondary form. Historical English sources, including Giles Jacob's *New Law Dictionary* and later editions of Cowell's *Interpreter*, give fuller treatment to *absque hoc* without separately cataloguing *sine hoc*, which suggests the Latin variant was always subordinate in English pleading literature. No historical source treats the two as carrying distinct meanings; the difference was stylistic, not substantive.