Cepi corpus
A New Law Dictionary and Glossary · Alexander M. Burrill · 1850
A New Law Dictionary and Glossary
Lat. (I have taken the body.) In practice. The technical name of the return made by a sheriff to a capias, that he has taken the body of the party.
F, N, B, 26. 3 Bl Com, 288. 1 Tidd's Pr, 308—310.
See Capias, It is derived from the two emphatic words of the return which was anciently endorsed in law Latin on the writ. Cepi corpus properly is the return where the defendant is out on bail; where he is in actual custody, the return is cepi corpus in custodia, 1 Tidd's Pr, 308, 309.
Sewel Vs Law of Sheriff, 38Y.
Cepi corpus et paratum habeo, (I have taken the body and have it ready,) is another form of this return, which anciently implied that the party was in actual custody, but is now the proper return where the defendant has been arrested and discharged on bail.
Id, ibid, 1 Tidd's Pr. ub, supra.