De malo lecti

Lat. [L. Fr. de mat de Igt.] Of infirmity or illness of [in] bed. A species of essoin or excuse for non appearance in court, formerly allowed a defendant in England, and more anciently called de infirmitate de reseantisa; the excuse being that the defendant was confined to his house in bed {lectus) by infirmity or indisposition, {malum.) Glanv. lib.

1, c. 18, 19.

Bract, fol.

337, 344 b.

Britt. c.

122, 123. 1 Reeves' Hist. Eng. Law, 115, 412.

See Malum lecti. This essoin commonly followed immediately upon that de malo veniendi (infra); for where a person having been detained on the road by sickness, and having cast the essoin de malo veniendi had found himself obliged to return home, the order of essoins, conformably with what was likely to be the real fact, led to the essoin de malo lecti.

1 Reeves* Hist. 412.

Bract, fol.

344 b.