Writ

A mandatory precept, issued by the authority and in the name of the sovereign or the state, for the purpose of compelling the defendant to do something therein mentioned. It is issued by a court or other competent jurisdiction, and is returnable to the same. It is to be under seal and tested by the proper officer, and is directed to the sheriff or othmesne process, of execution.

See 3 Bla. Com. 273; Gould, PI. c. 2, s. 1.

The list of original writs was not the reasoned scheme of a provident legislator, calmly devising apt remedies for all conceivable wrongs, rather it was the outcome of the long and complicated struggle whereby the king drew into his court all the litigation of the realm. The statute of Westminster 2d (1285) allowed the chancery to vary the old forms sb as to suit new cases, but only new cases which fall under old law. This gave in time one new form of action — trespass upon the special case — and this again threw out branches which came to be considered distinct forms of action, namely, assumpsit and trover. Equity, again, met some of the new wants, but others had to be met by a stretching and twisting of the old forms which were made to serve many purposes for which they were not originally intended; Poll. Torts (5th ed.) 535, note by F. W. Maitland. See Maitland, Register of Original Writs (3 Harv. L. Rev. 97, 167, 212; 2 Sel. Essays in Anglo- Amer. L* H. 549), with a classified list of writs. A writ is “issued” when it is delivered to an officer, with the intent to have it served; Wilkins v Worthcn, 62 Ark. 401, 36 S. W. 21; Michigan Ins. Bk. v. Eldred, 130 U. S. 693, 9 Sup. Ct. 690, 32 L. Ed! 10S0; Webster v. Sharpe, 116 N. C. 466, 21 S. E. 912. Although a writ which the court had power to issue was irregularly issued, the marshal must still act under it; Bryan v. Ker, 222 U. S. 107, 32 Sup. Ct. 26, 56 B. Ed. 114. As to the history of assumpsit, see 2 Harv. B. Rev. 1, 53, by Prof. J. B. Ames. See Westminister 2d, Statute of; Brevia Formata.