Latin, meaning What is not valid in the beginning does not become valid by time. … [Read more...]

That the bill be quashed. The coinnion-law form of a judgment sustaining a plea in abatement, where the proceeding is by bill, i.e., by a capias instead of by original writ. … [Read more...]

A writ to exempt a clerk of the chancery from the contribution towards the proctors of the clergy in parliament etc. Beg. Orig. 261. … [Read more...]

A writ which lay for a clerk, who, by reason of some land he had, was made, or was about to be made, bailiff, beadle, reeve, or some such officer, to obtain exemption from serving the office. Reg. Orig. 187. … [Read more...]

A rent paid by the tenant of the freehold, by which he goes quit and free; that is, discharged from any other rent. 2 Bl. Com. 42. 2. In England, quit rents were rents reserved to the king or a proprietor, on an absolute grant of waste land, for which a price in gross was at first paid, and a mere nominal rent reserved as a feudal acknowledgment of tenure. Inasmuch as no rent … [Read more...]