Cognizance
A Law Dictionary, Adapted to the Constitution and Laws of the United States · John Bouvier · 1839
A Law Dictionary, Adapted to the Constitution and Laws of the United States
pleading, is where the defendant in an action of replevin, (not being entitled to the distress or goods which are the subject of the replevin,) acknowledges the takin, -of the distress, and insists that such taking was legal, not because he himself had a right to distrain on his own account, but because he made the distress by the command of another who had a right to distrain on the goods which are the subject of the suit.
Lawes on Pl. 35, 36.