Decisory

a term used law. A decisory oath is decision of the cause. It may be} deferred in any kind of civil contest whatever, in questions of possession or of claim; in personal actions and inreal. The plaintiff may defer the oath to the defendant, whenever he conceives he has not sufficient proof of the fact which is the foundation of his claim; and in like manner, the defendant may defer it to the plaintiff when he has not sufficient proof of his defence. The person to whom the oath is deferred, ought either to take it or refer it back, and if he will not do either, the cause should be decided against him.

Poth. on Oblig. P. 4, c. 3, s 4.

The decisory oath has been practically adopted in the district court of the United States, for the district of Massachusetts, and admiralty causes have been determined in that court by the oath decisory; but the cases in which this oath has been adopted, have been where the tender has been accepted; and no case is known to have occurred there in which the oath has been refused and tendered back to the adversary.

Dunl. Adm. Pr. 290, 291.