Teste

I. Witness; the name of the attestation clause of a writ, and particularly applied to the day on which the writ is witnessed, or issued.

In old English law. The initial and emphatic word of the clause at the conclusion of writs, containing the attestation of the sovereign, or chief justice out of whose court it was issued, and the day on which it was issued or granted. Teste meipso: witness ourself; a solemn form of attestation of charters, and other public instruments, and of original writs out of chancery.

practice. The teste of a writ is the concluding clause, commencing with the word witness, &c. The act of congress of May 8, 1792, 1 Story’s Laws U. S. 257, directs that all writs and process issuing from the supreme or a circuit court, shall bear test of the chief justicertof the supreme court, or if that office be vacant, of the associate justice next in precedence; and that all writs or process issuing from a district court, shall bear test of the judge of such court, or if the said office be vacant, of the clerk thereof, Vide Serg. Const. Law, Index, b. t.; 20 Vin. Ab. 262; Steph. Plead. 20.