mesne process
Defined in 5 dictionaries — Case Law, Cyclopedic (1922), Ballentine's (1916), Bouvier (1914), Black's (1910)
Definitions from Case Law
From 70 U.S. 334 - Buck v. Colbath · 1865Most cited · 377 citing opinions
Those in which the officer is directed to levy the process upon property of one of the parties to the litigation, sufficient to satisfy the demand against him, without describing any specific property to be thus taken. Of this class are the writ of attachment, or other mesne process, by which property is seized before judgment to answer to such judgment when rendered, and the final process of execution, elegit, or other writ, by which an ordinary judgment is carried into effect.
The Cyclopedic Law Dictionary
Walter A. Shumaker and George Foster Longsdorf; ed. James C. Cahill · 1922
In practice. All writs necessary to a suit between its beginning and end, that is, between primary process or summons and final process, or execution, whether for the plaintiff, against the defendant, or for either against any party whose presence is necessary to the suit.
Ballentine's Law Dictionary
James A. Ballentine · 1916
Bouvier's Law Dictionary and Concise Encyclopedia
John Bouvier; revised by Francis Rawle · 1914
See Mesne.
Black's Law Dictionary
Henry Campbell Black, M.A. · 1910
As distinguished from final process, this signifies any writ or process issued between the commencement of the action and the suing out of execution. It includes the writ of summons, (although that is now the usual commencement of actions,) because anciently that was preceded by the original writ. The writ of capias ad respondendum was called "mesne" to distinguish it, on the one hand, from the original process by which a suit was formerly commenced; and, on the other, from the final process of execution. Birmingham Dry Goods Co. v. Bledsoe, 113 Ala. 418, 21 South. 403; Hirshiser v. Tinsley, 9 Mo. App. 342; Pennington v. Lowinstein. 19 Fed. Cas. 168.
Defined under Process in Black's Law Dictionary.