SCIRE FIERI INQUIRY

Eng. law. The name of a writ, the history of the origin of which is as follows: when on an execution de bonis testatoris against an executor the sheriff returned nulla bona and also a devastavit, a fieri facias, de bonis propriis, might formerly have been issued against the executor, without a previous inquisition finding a devastavit and a scire facias. But the most usual practice upon the sheriff’s return of nulla bona a to a fieri facias de bonis testatoris, was to sue out a special writ of fieri facias de bonis testatoris, with a clause in it, et si tibi constare, poterit, that the executor had wasted the goods, then to levy de bonis propriis. This was the practice in the king’s bench till the time of Charles I. 2. In the common pleas a practice had prevailed in early times upon a suggestion in the special writ of fieri facias of a devastavit by the executor, to direct the sheriff to inquire by a jury, whether the executor had wasted the goods, and if the jury found he had, then a scire facias was issued out against him, and unless he made a good defence thereto, an execution de bonis propriis was awarded against him.