Lis

Lat. A controversy or dispute; a suit or action at law.

— Lis alibi pendens. A suit pending elsewhere. The fact that proceedings are pending between a plaintiff and defendant in one court in respect to a given matter is frequently a ground for preventing the plaintiff from taking proceedings in another court against the same defendant for the same object and arising out of the same cause of action. Sweet.

— Lis mota. A controversy moved or begun. By this term is meant a dispute which has arisen upon a point or question which afterwards forms the issue upon which legal proceedings are instituted. Westfelt v. Adams, 131 N. C. 379, 42 S. E. 823. After such controversy has arisen, (post ltem motam,) it is held, declarations as to pedigree, made by members of the family since deceased, are not admissible. See 4 Camp. 417; 6 Car. & P. 560.

— Lis pendens. A suit pending; that legal process, in a suit regarding land, which amounts to legal notice to all the world that there is a dispute as to the title. In equity the filing of the bill and serving a subpœna creates a Its pendens, except when statutes require some record. Stim. Law Gloss. See Boyd v. Emmons, 103 Ky. 393, 45 S. W. 364; Tinsley v. Rice, 105 Ga. 285, 31 S. E. 174; Bowen v. Kirkland, 17 Tex. Civ. App. 346, 44 S. W. 189; Hines v. Duncan, 79 Ala. 117, 58 Am. Rep. 580. In the civil law. A suit pending. A suit was not said to be pending before that stage of it called "litis contestatio, (q. v.) Mackeld. Rom. Law, § 219; Calvin,

— Notice of lis pendens. A notice filed for the purpose of warning all persons that the title to certain property is in litigation, and that, if they purchase the defendant's claim to the same, they are in danger of being bound by an adverse judgment. See Empire Land & Canal Co. v. Engley, 18 Cole, 388, 33 Pan. 153.