Legal Dictionary of Pakistan

ac etiam

[Law Latin] 1. And also. These words introduced a genuine claim in a pleading in a common-law case in which a fictitious claim had to be alleged to give the court jurisdiction. In other words, the phrase ac etiam directed the court to the real cause of action. - Also spelled acetiam. "[T]o remedy this inconvenience, the officers of the king's bench devised a method of adding what is called a clause of ac etiam to the usual complaint of trespass; the bill of Middlesex commanding the defendant to be brought in to answer the plaintiff of a plea of trespass, and also to a bill of debt: the complaint of trespass giving cognizance to the court, and that of debt authorizing the arrest." 3 William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England 288 (1768) 2. Common-law pleading. The clause that introduced the real allegation after a fictitious allegation of trespass. - Also termed in sense 2) ac etiam clause.