TOTIES QUOTIES

Definition

A Latin maxim meaning "as often as occasion shall arise" or "as often as it shall happen." In legal usage, toties quoties functions as a recurring trigger — it authorizes or compels an action to be repeated each and every time the qualifying condition is met, without limit and without requiring a fresh order or proceeding for each instance. The phrase appears most commonly in the context of enforcement mechanisms: when a court orders a recurring obligation (such as periodic alimony payments) and provides that execution may issue toties quoties, it means that a writ of execution may be obtained automatically upon each default, not merely once. The initial order establishes both the obligation and the remedy; the phrase eliminates the need to return to court for a new judgment each time the obligor fails to comply.

Core Elements

The operative force of toties quoties rests on three components: 1. A predicate order or rule establishing an obligation or permission. 2. A recurring condition — typically a periodic event, default, or circumstance — that triggers application. 3. The automatic repetition of the consequence each time that condition arises, without requiring fresh judicial authorization. The phrase is not merely descriptive. When embedded in an order or instrument, it carries procedural weight: it eliminates intervening steps that would otherwise be required under the ordinary rule that each enforcement action needs independent authorization.

Why It Matters in Research

Researchers encountering toties quoties in historical sources — particularly equity decrees, ecclesiastical court orders, and early common law judgments — should understand that the phrase is doing real procedural work, not merely decorating the text. Its presence signals a self-executing enforcement mechanism built into the original order. In domestic relations research, the phrase appears most often in alimony and maintenance orders from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, where quarterly or periodic payments were enforced by standing execution authority. Anderson's example (alimony payable in quarterly installments, with execution to issue toties quoties on default) is the paradigm case. Researchers tracing the history of contempt and enforcement mechanisms in family law will find this phrase marking an early procedural bridge between civil debt enforcement and the modern contempt-based enforcement of support orders. The phrase also surfaces in corporate and institutional governance instruments — charters, bylaws, and trust deeds — where recurring meetings, elections, or acts are authorized to occur toties quoties as a particular need arises. Burrill's citation to a governance instrument ("as often as it shall seem meet to them, or the greater number of them") reflects this parallel usage. One navigational trap: because toties quoties appears in both equity and common law contexts and in both public and private instruments, it does not belong exclusively to any single body of doctrine. Researchers should not assume the enforcement context from the phrase alone; the surrounding instrument must be read to identify what obligation, what condition, and what consequence are being linked.

Historical Dictionary Support

The five source dictionaries are in full agreement on the core translation — "as often as occasion shall arise" or "as often as it shall happen" — and none diverges meaningfully on meaning. The variation is only in depth of treatment. Black's (both editions) treats the phrase as a simple definitional entry, offering the translation without procedural context. Rapalje & Lawrence matches that brevity. Anderson's is the most practically useful of the five, grounding the phrase in a concrete procedural application (execution issuing on alimony defaults) that illustrates how the maxim operated in practice. Burrill's is the most scholarly, providing the literal breakdown ("so often, as often") and citing actual reported cases and instruments, including Cas. temp. Talbot, 52 and the governance instrument from 7 Man. & Gr. 39. What the historical dictionaries collectively miss is any discussion of how toties quoties enforcement mechanisms relate to, or were eventually supplanted by, contempt-based enforcement. The phrase belongs to an era when recurring civil enforcement was conceived as a matter of repeated execution rather than ongoing judicial supervision. That conceptual shift is significant for researchers tracing the evolution of enforcement doctrine, but it is not addressed in any of the source entries.

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