Legal Dictionary of Pakistan
Quick lookup for English, Urdu, and Latin legal terms used in Pakistani jurisprudence.
Assumpsit
[law latin "he undertook"] i. An express or implied promise, not under seal, by which one person undertakes to do some act or pay something to another <an assumpsit to pay a debt>. 2. A common-law action for breach of such a promise or for breach of a contract <the creditor's assumpsit against the debtor>.
General assumpsit
an action based on the defendant's breach of an implied promise to pay a debt to the plaintiff. - also termed common assumpsit; indebitatus assumpsit. "general assumpsit is brought for breach of a fictitious or implied promise raised by law from a debt founded upon an executed consideration. The basis of the actionis the promise implied by law from the performance of the consideration, or from a debt or legal duty resting upon the defendant." benjamin j. Shipman, handbook of common-law pleading § 59, at 153 (henry winthrop ballantine ed., 3d ed. 1923).
Indebitatus assumpsit
[latin "being indebted, he undertook"] 1. Hist. A form of action in which the plaintiff alleges that the defendant contracted a debt and, as consideration, had undertaken (i.e., promised) to pay. 0 the action was equivalent to the common-law action for debt (an action based on a sealed instrument), but could be used to enforce an oral debt. Indebitatus assumpsit was abolished in 1873 by the judicature act. See concessit solvere. 2. See general assumpsit. "[i]f i verbally agree to pay a man a certain price for a certain parcel of goods, and fail in the performance, an action of debt lies against me; for this is a determinate contract: but if i agree for no settled price, i am not liable to an action of debt, but a special action on the case, according to the nature of my contract. And indeed actions of debt are now seldom brought but upon special contracts under seal .... [t]he plaintiff must recover the whole debt he claims, or nothing at all. For the debt is one single cause of action, fixed and determined; and which therefore, if the proof varies from the claim, cannot be looked upon as the same ... Action of debt .... But in an action on the case, on what is called an indebitatus assumpsit, which is not brought to compel a specific performance of the contract, but to recover damages for its non-performance, the implied assumpsit, and consequently the damages for the breach of it, are in their nature indeterminate; and will therefore adapt and proportion themselves to the truth of the case which shall be proved, without being confined to the precise demand stated in the declaration." 3 william blackstone, commentaries on the laws of england 154 (1768).
Special assumpsit.
s an action based on the defendant's breach of an express contract. -also termed express assumpsit."special assumpsit lies for the recovery of damages for the breach of simple contract, either express or implied in fact. The term 'special contract' is often used to denote an express or explicit contract as contrasted with a promise implied in law." benjamin j. Shipman, handbook of common-law pleading § 58, at 148 (henry winthrop ballantine ed., 3d ed. 1923).
common assumpsit
See general assumpsit under ASSUMPSIT.
express assumpsit
See special, assumpsit under ASSUMPSIT.
general assumpsit
See ASSUMPSIT.
indebitatus assumpsit
See ASSUMPSIT.
non assumpsit
[Latin "he did not undertake"] Hist. A general denial in an action of assumpsit. See ASSUMPSIT. "'Non assumpsit' is the general issue in assumpsit, whether special or general, and is in effect a formal denial of liability on the promise or contract alleged. It denies not only the inducement or statement of the plaintiffs right, but also the breach, and allows any defense tending to show that there was no debt or cause of action at the time of commencing suit." Benjamin J. Shipman, Handbook of Common-Law Pleading § 182, at 322 (Henry Winthrop Ballantine ed., 3d ed. 1923).
non assumpsit infra sex annos
n. [Latin "he did not undertake within six years"] Hist. The specific pleading form for the statute-oflimitations defense in an action of assumpsit.
special assumpsit
See ASSUMPSIT.