VENTIONEM - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

VENTIONEMAuthored

The Law Mind • 759 words

Definition

Ventionem (also rendered in the compound form præcipe in ventionem) is an archaic Latin legal term referring to the writ that commenced the action of covenant in fines — a procedural instrument used in the English common law system of conveyancing known as a fine (or final concord). A fine was a collusive or fictitious lawsuit used to transfer title to real property, creating a court record that served as a form of conveyance. The writ ventionem initiated the covenant stage of this process, compelling the party against whom the fine was levied to appear and answer the action. The procedure of fines, and with it the practical use of this writ, was abolished by the Fines and Recoveries Act, 3 & 4 Wm. IV, c. 74 (1833).

Common Confusion

Ventionem is occasionally confused with the broader category of præcipe writs, of which it was one specific variant. A præcipe was any writ commanding a defendant to do a thing or show cause why it had not been done; ventionem was the particular præcipe form used to initiate the covenant action in a fine, not a general-purpose command writ. Researchers who encounter præcipe in historical sources should not assume the writ relates to fines or conveyancing unless ventionem or the action of covenant is specifically indicated.

Why It Matters in Research

Ventionem is a term of almost purely antiquarian significance in the Law Mind corpus. It appears almost exclusively in sources predating or contemporaneous with the 1833 abolition of fines as a conveyancing method. Researchers working with English property records, conveyancing practice, or land title histories from the medieval period through the early nineteenth century may encounter the term in procedural descriptions of how fines were levied.

The key navigational point: because fines were abolished in 1833, any primary source using ventionem in a live procedural context necessarily predates that statute. Post-1833 appearances of the term are definitional or historical only — found in dictionaries, treatises on historical conveyancing, and legal history scholarship.

Researchers should also be alert to the fragmentary way this term appears in the source dictionaries. All three historical dictionaries — Black's, Rapalje & Lawrence, and Bouvier's — present the definition in nearly identical language, suggesting the entry was carried forward from a common ancestor source rather than independently developed. This limits the depth of analysis available from dictionary sources alone. For substantive treatment of the fine as a conveyancing device, researchers should look beyond the dictionary record to treatises on English real property law such as Blackstone's Commentaries (Book II) or historical works on common recovery and fine practice.

The term's Latin form (accusative case of ventio, from venire, to come) reflects its procedural function — it was the writ summoning a party to come and be heard — but this linguistic detail is less practically important than understanding its place within the procedural sequence of levying a fine.

Historical Dictionary Support

All three source dictionaries — Black's, Rapalje & Lawrence, and Bouvier's — give substantively identical one-sentence definitions: the writ that commenced the action of covenant in fines, abolished by 3 & 4 Wm. IV, c. 74. The uniformity is notable. None of the three sources elaborates on the procedural mechanics of how ventionem operated within the fine, the form of the writ, or the history of its development. Bouvier's and Black's both appear to have excerpted this entry from a shared source with minimal independent commentary.

What the historical dictionaries miss: they do not explain the broader context of fines as a conveyancing device, the stages of the process in which ventionem appeared, or why the action of covenant was the vehicle chosen for this purpose. A researcher relying solely on these dictionary entries will know that ventionem was abolished but will have little understanding of what it did. The dictionaries treat the abolition as the terminal fact of interest, rather than explaining the institution being abolished.

Jurisdictional Note

Ventionem was a term of English common law and has no significant presence in American legal history. The system of fines as a conveyancing device was not transplanted to the American colonies in operative form, and the 1833 English abolition statute had no American counterpart because the practice had never taken root here. Researchers in American legal sources are unlikely to encounter this term outside of general legal dictionaries reproducing the English definition.

VENTIONEMmain

Black's Law Dictionary • 1891

The writ which com. PRÆCIPE, TENANT TO THE N menced the action of covenant in fines, which are abolished by 3 & 4 Wm. IV. c. 74. PRÆCIPE, TENANT TO THE. A person having an estate of freehold in pos- 0 session, against whom the præcipe was brought by a tenant in tail, seeking to bar his estate by a recovery. PRÆCIPITIUM. The punishment of P casting headlong from some high place. PRÆCIPUT CONVENTIONNEL. In French law. Under the régime en com- munauté, when that is of the conventional kind, if the surviving husband or wife is entitled to take any portion of the common property by a paramount title and before partition thereof, this right is called by the somewhat barbarous title of the conven- tional “præciput,” from “prœ,” before, and "capere," to take. Brown. PRÆCO. Lat. In Roman law. A her- ald or crier. PRÆCOGNITA. Things to be previ- ously known in order to the understanding of something which follows. Wharton. PRÆDIA. In the civil law. Lands; es- tates; tenements; properties. See PRÆDI- UM, and following titles.

VENTIONEMmain

Rapalje & Lawrence • 1883

- The writ which commenced the action of covenant in fines, which are abolished by 3 and 4 Wm. IV. c. 74. PRÆDIUM URBANUM.-A building or edifice intended for the habitation and use of man, whether built in cities, or in the country. -Colquh. Rom. Civ. Law, & 937. PRÆFATUS. - Aforesaid. Sometimes abbreviated to præfat, and p. fat. See PRÆDICT. PRÆFECTUS URBI.-He was, from PRÆCIPE, TENANT TO THE.-See the time of Augustus, an officer who had the PRÆCIPE, § 3. 23. superintendence of the city and its police, with jurisdiction extending one hundred miles from PRÆCIPE, WRIT OF.-See PRÆCIPE, the city, and power to decide both civil and eriminal cases. As he was considered the direct representative of the emperor, much that previously PRÆCIPITIUM. - The punishment of belonged to the prætor urbanus fell gradually into casting headlong from some high place. PRÆCIPUT CONVENTIONNEL.- In the French law, under the régime en communauté, when that is of the conventional kind, if the survivor of husband and wife is entitled to take any portion of the common property by a paramount title and before partition thereof, this right is called by the somewhat barbarous title of the conventional præciput, from præ, before, and capere, to take.-Brown. his hands. Colquh. Rom. Civ. Law, § 2395. PRÆFECTUS VIGILUM. - The chief officer of the night watch. His jurisdiction extended to certain offenses affecting the public peace, and even to larcenies. But he could inflict only slight punishments.-Colquh. Rom. Civ. Law, § 2395. PRÆFECTUS VILLE. -The mayor of a town. PRÆFINE. - The fee paid on suing out the PRÆCOGNITA.-Things to be prewrit of covenant, on levying fines, before the fine viously known in order to the understanding of something which follows. PRÆDA BELLI.-Booty; property seized in war. PRÆDIA STIPENDIARIA. In the civil law, provincial lands belonging to the people. PRÆDIA TRIBUTARIA. In the civit law, provincial lands belonging to the emperor. as PRÆDIA VOLANTIA. -In the duchy of Brabant, certain things movable, such beds, tables, and other heavy articles of furniture, were ranked among immovables, and were called prædia volantia, or volatile estates. 2 Bl. Com. 428. PRÆDIAL TITHES.-Such as arise merely and immediately from the ground; as grain of all sorts, hops, hay, wood, fruit, herbs. 2 Bl. Com. 23; 2 Steph. Com. (7 edit.) 722. PRÆDICT-PRÆDICTUS. - Aforesaid Hob. 6. PRÆDIUM DOMINANS. An estate to which a servitude is due; the ruling estate. -Colquh. Rom. Cir. Law, § 937. PRÆDIUM RUSTICUM. - Heritage which is not destined for the use of man's habitation; such, for example, as lands, meadows, orchards, gardens, woods, even though they should be within the boundaries of a city.- Colquh. Rom. iv. Law, & 937. PRÆDIUM SERVIENS. - An estate which suffers or yields a service to another estate.- Colquh. Rom. Cir. Law, § 937. was passed. 2 Bl. Com. 350. PRÆMIUM PUDICITIÆ. -The consideration given by the seducer of a chaste woman for her defilement. 2 P. Wms. 452. PRÆMUNIRE. - The offense of directly or indirectly asserting the supremacy of the pope over the crown of England, as by procuring excommunications or bulls from Rome. The punishment is for the offender to be put out of the king's protection, to forfeit his lands and goods to the king, and to be imprisoned. The mandatory part of the writ used to enforce the prodatory visions of the acts against præmunire began præmunire facias, "that you cause [the accused] to be forewarned;" hence the name. It is now quite obsolete. Stats. 35 Edw. I.; 16 Rich. II. c. 5; 27 Eliz. c. 2, and many others, cited in 4 Bl. Com. 103 et seq.; 4 Steph. Com. 168 et seq.; Co. Litt. 129 b, 391 a, and Butler's note. PRÆNOMEN. - In the civil law, the name of a person, distinguishing him from others of the same family. ☐ PRÆPOSITUS.- An officer next in authority to the alderman of a hundred, called propositus regius; or a steward or bailiff of an estate, answering to the wienere. Anc. Inst. Eng. Also, the person from whom descents are traced under the old canons. PRÆPOSITUS ECCLESIÆ. - A church-reeve, or church warden. PRÆPOSITUS VILLE. -A constable of a town, or petty constable. Præpropera consilia raro sunt prospera (4 Inst. 57): Hasty counsels are rarely prosperous. PRÆSCRIPTIO.

VENTIONEMmain

Bouvier's Law Dictionary • 1928

The writ which com- menced the action of covenant in fines, which are abolished by 3 & 4 Wm. IV. c. 74. PRÆCIPITIUM. The punishment of PRÆCIPUT CONVENTIONNEL casting headlong from some high place. PRÆCIPUT CONVENTIONNEL. In French Law. Under the regime en com- munauté, when that is of the conventional kind, if the survivor of husband and wife is entitled to take any portion of the com- mon property by a paramount title and before partition thereof, this right is called by the somewhat barbarous title of the conventional præciput, from præ, before, and capere, to take. Brown. PRÆDIA (Lat.). In Civil Law. Lands. Prædia urbana, those lands which have buildings upon them and are in the city. Prædia rustica, those lands which are without buildings or in the country. Voc. Jur. Uta. Prædia stipendiaria, provincial lands belonging to the people. Prædia tributaria, provincial lands be- longing to the emperor. Prædia volantia, certain things movable which were ranked among immovable things. 2 Bla. Com. 428. It indicates a more extensive domain than fundus. Calvinus, Lex. PRÆDIA BELLI (Lat.). Booty. Property seized in war. See BOOTY. PRÆDIAL. That which arises imme- diately from the ground: as, grain of all sorts, hay, wood, fruits, herbs, and the like. PRÆDIUM DOMINANS (Lat. the ruling estate). In Civil Law. The name given to an estate to which a servitude is due; it is called the ruling estate. PRÆDIUM RUSTICUM (Lat. a country estate). In Civil Law. By this is understood all heritages which are not destined for the use of man's habitation; such, for example, as lands, meadows, orchards, gardens, woods, even though they should be within the boundaries of a city. PRÆDIUM SERVIENS (Lat.). In Civil Law. The name of an estate which suffers or yields a service to another estate. PRÆDIUM URBANUM (Lat.). In Civil Law. By this term is understood buildings and edifices intended for the habitation and use of man, whether they be built in cities or whether they be con- structed in the country. PRÆFECTI APOSTOLICI. Officers of the same character as the Vicarius Apostolicus (q. v.), but without the power of exercising episcopal functions. 2 Phill. Int. L. 529.

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