TORES - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

TORESAuthored

The Law Mind • 699 words

Definition

"Tores" is the plural form of "tore." In legal usage, the term does not carry an established, independent legal meaning. It appears in historical legal texts primarily as a typographical or orthographic variant—or as a component of Latin and Law French phrases—rather than as a standalone legal term of art.

Researchers encountering "tores" in a legal source should examine the surrounding context carefully to determine whether it functions as: (1) a variant spelling or inflection of a Latin root appearing in a multi-word legal phrase; (2) a transcription artifact from manuscript or early printed legal materials; or (3) a simple plural noun from ordinary language embedded in legal text (e.g., architectural tores in a property dispute).

Common Confusion

TORES / VENIRE DE NOVO: The Law Mind corpus source record for this entry conflates "tores" with material about VENIRE DE NOVO. These are unrelated. Researchers who arrive at this entry seeking information about new trial writs or error practice should proceed directly to the VENIRE DE NOVO entry.

TORES / TUTORES: In Latin legal texts, "tutores" (guardians or tutors, nominative plural) is a well-established term in Roman law and in the civilian tradition carried into Scottish, Louisiana, and canon law contexts. A misreading of "tutores" as "tores"—possible in damaged or poorly copied manuscripts—could cause a researcher to miss guardianship-related material entirely.

Why It Matters in Research

The primary research challenge with "tores" is disambiguation. Because the term has no settled legal definition of its own, encountering it in historical sources—particularly in manuscript court records, early printed reports, or writ registers—requires the researcher to reconstruct meaning from context.

Several traps are worth flagging:

First, the historical legal dictionary material linked to this entry in the Law Mind corpus pertains to VENIRE DE NOVO, not to "tores" as an independent concept. This mismatch suggests the term may have appeared in a source passage adjacent to or embedded within a venire de novo discussion, and was extracted or indexed separately. Researchers should return to the source document and read the full passage before treating "tores" as a term with independent doctrinal weight.

Second, Law Latin and Law French texts frequently contain abbreviated, contracted, or inflected word forms that modern readers may transcribe as unfamiliar standalone terms. A word reading as "tores" in a manuscript context may be a contracted form of "tortores" (tormentors, used in some medieval criminal pleading contexts), "tutores" (guardians), or another declined Latin noun. The difference is legally significant—confusing "tutores" with an unrelated term could send a researcher down entirely the wrong path in a guardianship or ward-related inquiry.

Third, early English legal printing introduced compositing errors and non-standard spellings with some regularity. If "tores" appears in an early printed source and the surrounding text does not make the meaning self-evident, consulting a manuscript original or a scholarly edition is advisable before concluding the term has doctrinal content.

Historical Dictionary Support

Rapalje & Lawrence do not define "tores" as an independent legal term. The source material associated with this entry in the Law Mind corpus indexes the term alongside a definition of VENIRE DE NOVO—a writ issued on error from a verdict in an inferior court, vacating that verdict and directing the sheriff to summon jurors anew, functioning in practice as a mechanism for ordering a new trial. That definition is complete and substantive, but it belongs to VENIRE DE NOVO, not to "tores."

No other historical legal dictionaries in the standard canon—Bouvier, Black, Burrill, Jacob, Tomlin, or Termes de la Ley—carry a standalone entry for "tores." Absence from this shelf is meaningful: terms with settled legal content almost always appear in at least one of these sources. The absence here strongly supports the conclusion that "tores" is not a recognized legal term of art.

TORESmain

Rapalje & Lawrence • 1883

VENIRE DE NOVO, in criminal practice, is a writ issued by the court on a writ of error (q. v.), from a verdict given in an inferior court, vacating the verdict and directing the sheriff to summon jurors anew, whence the name of the writ. It is in fact a mode of directing a new trial. (Arch. Cr. Pl. 188; Pritch. Quar. Sess. 352. See Reg. v. Murphy, L. R. 2 P. C. 535, and the cases there cited. See TRIAL, 88 6, 11.) It was formerly also used in civil actions. 2 Arch. Pr. (3 edit.) 27. VENDOR'S LIEN.-An unpaid vendor of lands is entitled to a lien thereon for the purchase money (or the proportion thereof) remaining unpaid after execution of the conveyance and possession delivered; and such a lien is equivalent in value to an equitable mortgage, being a real right and not merely a personal one. The lien is not lost by taking a collateral security, e. g. a bond; but if the bond was substitutive of, and not cumulative with, the lien, then the lien is gone. The lien when it exists and is not lost, waived, or abandoned, holds good against the purchaser himself, and his heirs, and all persons taking under him or them as volunteers; also, against subsequent purchasers for valuable consideration who bought with notice of the purchase money remaining unpaid; also, against the assignees or trustees of a bankrupt, although they may have had no notice of it; and if the legal son, against whom an indictment for a estate is outstanding, then also against all misdemeanor has been found, to appear subsequent purchasers and mortgagees of and be arraigned for the offense. A justhe land. On the other hand, the lien will tice's warrant is now more commonly not prevail against a bonâ fide purchaser used. Arch. Cr. Pl. 81. See DISTRINGAS; for valuable consideration, without notice, OUTLAWRY; WARRANT. who has the legal estate in him. VENIRE DE NOVO, (is never equivalent to a "new suit"). 10 Pet. (U. S.) 125, 131.