Pendens

Fending, as lis pendens, a pending suit.

Pendente lite

Pending suit; during litigation; during the actual progress of a suit. Thus letters of administration may be granted pendente lite, where a suit has been commenced touching the validity of a will. One who buys property in litigation is called a purchaser pendente lite. An allowance granted to a wife, to be paid by her husband, to enable her to prosecute or defend a divorce suit, is often called alimony pendente lite.

Pendente lite nihil innovetur

Pending a suit nothing should be changed. During the pendency of a suit no change should be. made in property which is the subject of it, as by a conveyance by one of the parties, which may affect the rights of his opponent. Such a conveyance is not, however, absolutely void; but the grantee takes the Fendentes. More fully, fructu.i pendentes, a civil-law term for fruits not yet plucked; ungathered crops.