De Vasto
The Cyclopedic Law Dictionary · Walter A. Shumaker and George Foster Longsdorf; ed. James C. Cahill · 1922
The Cyclopedic Law Dictionary
Writ of waste. A writ which might be brought by him who had the immediate estate of inheritance in reversion or remainder, against the tenant for life, in dower, by curtesy, or for years, where the latter had committed waste in lands; calling upon the tenant to appear and show cause why he committed waste and destruction in the place named, to the disinherison (ad exhaeredationem) of the plaintiff.
Reg. Orig. 72-75; Reg. Jud. 17 b; Fitzh. Nat. Brev. 55 (C); 3 Bl. Comm. 227, 228. Abolished by St. 3 & 4 Wm. IV. c. 27; 3 Steph. Comm. 506.
DE VENTRE INSPICIENDO (Lat. of inspecting the belly). A writ to inspect the body, where a woman feigns to be pregnant, to see whether she is with child. It lies for the heir presumptive to examine a widow suspected to be feigning pregnancy in order to enable a supposititious heir to obtain the estate.
1 Bl. Comm. 456; 2 Steph. Comm. 308; Cro. Eliz. 556; Cro. Jac. 685; 2 P. Wms. 593; 21 Viner, Abr. 547.
It lay also where a woman sentenced to death pleaded pregnancy.
4 Bl. Comm. 495.
This writ has been recognized in America.
2 Chand. Am. Crim. Tr. 381.