TALITER PROCESSUM EST

Definition

Latin: "So it has proceeded" or "such were the proceedings." A term of art in common law pleading referring to a general alleging formula by which a party — typically a defendant justifying conduct under legal process — invoked the prior proceedings of an inferior court without setting them out in full detail. Rather than recite every step of the lower court's process, the pleader could substitute the shorthand allegation that "such proceedings were had," and this condensed formula was called the taliter processum est. The Latin phrase itself is drawn from the words that appeared in such pleadings to introduce the generalized account.

Why It Matters in Research

This is a pure historical pleading term. Researchers will encounter it primarily in English common law sources, treatises on common law pleading procedure, and American cases and texts from the pre-code era — roughly before the mid-nineteenth century procedural reforms that abolished the old forms of action in most American jurisdictions and eventually in England itself. The critical navigational point: taliter processum est belongs to a system of highly technical pleading rules that modern procedural codes have entirely displaced. When reading older reports or treatises that reference this term, researchers must understand that it operated within the formal architecture of common law special pleading — a system in which the sufficiency of a pleading was judged by rigid formal standards, and where recognized shorthand formulas like this one carried specific legal weight and served specific functions that a modern motion practice does not replicate. The term is most likely to surface when a researcher is working with: - Pre-code pleading treatises (Stephen on Pleading is the reference Bouvier cites; Chitty on Pleading is another central source) - English common law reports from the seventeenth through early nineteenth centuries - American cases from roughly 1780–1850 involving inferior court jurisdiction, especially in states that retained common law pleading forms longest - Secondary materials explaining why code pleading (Field Code, 1848, and its descendants) was adopted — the opaque technicality of formulas like this one was precisely what reformers targeted Researchers should also note: taliter processum est addressed a genuine structural tension in pleading an inferior court judgment. Because inferior courts had limited and often special jurisdiction, a party relying on such a judgment had to show the court had jurisdiction — but full recitation of all proceedings would be burdensome and often impossible. The taliter formula resolved this by permitting generalized allegation while preserving the defendant's ability to stand on the legal sufficiency of the process. Understanding this function clarifies why the formula mattered and why it appears in the specific context of inferior court process defenses. Do not expect to find taliter processum est in modern procedural codes, rules, or case law except in historical or scholarly discussion.

Historical Dictionary Support

All three source dictionaries converge on the core meaning: a general pleading allegation substituting for full recitation of inferior court proceedings. Black's First and Second Editions give nearly identical definitions, emphasizing the rule that proceedings "preliminary to such judgment, and on which the same was founded, must, to some extent, appear in the pleading," but that a general allegation suffices in place of a detailed account. Bouvier adds the literal Latin translation — "So it has proceeded" — and correctly situates the formula in the context of a defendant justifying conduct by invoking inferior court process, citing Stephen's Pleading (5th ed., p. 369) and Mozley & Whiteley. The sources agree on function and context. None provides extended discussion of when the formula was sufficient versus when fuller pleading was required — a gap that matters in practice because the adequacy of a taliter allegation could be contested. Researchers needing that level of detail should go directly to Stephen on Pleading or Chitty on Pleading rather than relying on dictionary treatment alone. Bouvier's adjacent entry on TALLAGE (immediately following in the original text) has no connection to this term despite the proximity in the source; the two entries are unrelated.

Jurisdictional Note

Taliter processum est is an English common law pleading concept absorbed into early American practice. Its relevance in American sources tracks the persistence of common law pleading forms in individual states. By the mid-to-late nineteenth century, code pleading states had rendered it obsolete as operative doctrine. A handful of states retained common law pleading forms well into the twentieth century, so the term's practical life varied significantly by jurisdiction.

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