ELEGIT

(Lat. He has chosen.) This is the name, in English practice, of a writ of execution first given by the statute of Westm. 2 (13 Edw. I. c. 18) either upon a judgment for a debt or damages or upon the forfeiture of a recognizance taken in the king’s court It is so called because it is in the choice or election of the plaintiff whether he will sue out this writ or a ft. fa. By it the defendant’s goods and chattels are appraised and all of them (except oxen and beasts of the plow) are delivered to the plaintiff, at such reasonable appraisement and price, in part satisfaction of his debt If the goods are not sufficient, then the moiety of his freehold lands, which he had at the time of the judgment given, are also to be delivered to the plaintiff, to hold till out of the rents and profits thereof the debt be levied, or till the defendant’s Interest be expired. During this period the plaintiff is called “tenant by elegit,” and his estate, an “estate by elegit.” This writ or its analogue, is in use in some of the United States, as Virginia and Kentucky. See 3 Bl. Comm. 418; Hutcheson v. Grubbs, 80 Va. 254; North American F. Ins. Co. v. Graham, 5 Sandf. N. Y.) 197.