Scienter

Knowingly; with knowledge. In the Latin forms of declarations and indictments, scienter was the formal and emphatic word used to express knowledge, on the part of a defendant, of certain facts, knowledge of which was an essential part of the wrong or crime charged upon him. Hence it was frequently used, substantively, as the name of that clause of a pleading or indictment which charged such knowledge. Inserting such a clause was called laying the action or the indictment with a scienter. Hence the word, retaining these meanings, has also come to signify, most often, the guilty knowledge itself. Thus, in a criminal prosecution for passing counterfeit money, the word scienter designates both the knowledge of the character of the money which is necessary to constitute the crime, and the averment of such knowledge in the indictment. Scientla utrimque par pares contraheatea facit. Equal knowledge on both sides makes contracting parties equal. Thus a person applying for insurance need not mention what the underwriter knows, or what he ought to know.