SUPERSEDEAS

Latin: In practice. A writ ordering the suspension or superseding of another writ previously Issued. It directs the ofllcer to whom it is issued to refrain from executing or acting under another writ which is in his hands or may come to him. By a conventional extension of the term it has come to be used as a designation of the effect of any proceeding or act in a cause which, of its own force, causes a suspension or stay of proceedings. Thus, when we say that a writ of error is a supersedeas, we merely mean that it has the same effect of suspending proceedings in the court below, which would have been produced by writ of supersedeas.