Prohibitio De Vasto

DIRECTA PARtl. A judicial writ which used to be addressed to a tenant, prohibiting him from waste pending suit. Reg. Jud. 21; Moore, 917. PROHIBITION (Lat. prohibition; from pro and habeo, to hold back).

In practice. The name of a writ issued by a superior court, directed to the judge and parties of a suit in an inferior court, commanding them to cease from the prosecution of the same, upon a suggestion that the cause originally, or some collateral matter arising therein, does not belong to that jurisdiction, but to the cognizance of some other court. 3 Bl. Comm. 112; Comyn, Dig.; Bac. Abr.; Saund. Index; Viner, Abr.; 2 Sellon, Prac. 308; Ayliffe, Par. 434; 2 H. Bl. 533. The writ is based on absence of jurisdiction, and will issue only where the lower court has either no jurisdiction of the action (47 Cal. 584; 4 Minn. 366; 60 N. Y. 31), or where, having jurisdiction of a cause, it proceeds to some act beyond its power (20 N. Y. 531). But where the lower court has jurisdiction of all matters involved, mere error in its decision is no ground for prohibition. 100 Mo. 59; 13 Ind. 235. "The writ of prohibition, as its name imports, is one which commands the person to whom it is directed not to do something which, by the suggestion of the relator, the court is informed he is about to do. If the thing be already done, it is manifest that the writ of prohibition cannot undo it, for that would require an affirmative act, and the only effect of a writ of prohibition is to prevent any further proceedings in the prohibited direction." 4 Wall. (U. S.) 159.

I. A judicial ing a suit.