Mesne process

As distinguished from final process, this signifies any writ or process issued between the commencement of the action and the suing out of execution. It includes the writ of summons, (although that is now the usual commencement of actions,) because anciently that was preceded by the original writ. The writ of capias ad respondendum was called "mesne" to distinguish it, on the one hand, from the original process by which a suit was formerly commenced; and, on the other, from the final process of execution.

Birmingham Dry Goods Co. v. Bledsoe, 113 Ala. 418, 21 South. 403; Hirshiser v. Tinsley, 9 Mo. App. 342; Pennington v. Lowinstein. 19 Fed. Cas. 168.