Legal Dictionary of Pakistan

decree pro confesso

Equity practice. A decree entered in favor of the plaintiff as a result of the defendant's failure to timely respond to the allegations in the plaintiff's bill. "A decree pro confesso in equity is similar to a default judgment in an action at law. If a defendant in an equity suit fails to answer the plaintiffs petition within the prescribed time period, the bill will be taken pro confessors, and a decree entered in favor of the plaintiff However, whereas a default judgment in an action at law effects an admission of pleaded facts and conclusions of law ... a decree pro confesso in an equity action admits only the material and well pleaded facts in the petition and does not admit the legal claims upon which the plaintiff seeks relief." 27A Am. Jur. 2d Equity § 249, at 733-34 (1996).