custodia legis
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 83 U.S. 203 - Davis v. Gray · 1872Most cited · 501 citing opinions
Money or property in his hands is in custodia legis.
How the Supreme Court has restated “custodia legis”
Each Supreme Court definition of “custodia legis,” sized by how often later courts cited it. “Change” is measured by wording overlap with earlier definitions — a rough signal, not a semantic judgment.
How often courts cite the cases defining “custodia legis”
Court decisions citing the 3 opinions that defined “custodia legis” — 904 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining cases as a whole, not verified uses of the term. The dip in the most recent years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the latest years.
All 3 definitions, chronological · 1854–1916
- 1854·58 U.S. 471 - Zachary Pulliam v. Alexander Osborne Administrator of Samuel Woodward[p8]· cited 36×ORIGINAL
property once levied on remains in the custody of the law, and it is not liable to be taken by another execution in the hands of a different officer, and especially an officer acting under a different jurisdiction.
property in custody of the law
The estate was in custodia legis from the filing of the petition, and the title of the trustee related back to that date.
bankruptcy