Monstrans De Droit
Dictionary of Terms and Phrases Used in American or English Jurisprudence · Benjamin Vaughan Abbott · 1879
Dictionary of Terms and Phrases Used in American or English Jurisprudence
A manifestation or showing of title. This was the name of a common-law proceeding or remedy available for enforcing a claim against the crown, when the title were matter of record. The proceeding was formerly allowable only when the right of the claimant as well as the right of the crown appeared upon the record; and it consisted in putting in a claim of right, grounded on facts already acknowledged and established, and praying the judgment of the court, whether upon those facts the king or the subject had the right. This proceeding was extended by statutes of Edward III. and Edward VI. to almost all cases where a subject claims against the right of the crown founded on an inquisition of office.
3 Bl. Com. 256, 257; 3 Steph. Com. 656, 657.
The judgment in a monstrans de droit, or other proceeding against the crown, is called amoveas manus or ouster-le-main. Manslrans de droit may now be preferred or prosecuted either in the chancery or in any of the common-law courts, although originally in the chancery and exchequer only. ( See petitions of right act, 1860, 23 & 24 Vict. ch. 34.) Brawn.