Lat. In Roman law. Thls was the name of one of the legis actiones. It was employed only In certain particular kinds of pecunlary cases, and con-sisted in that the creditor, without prellmi-nary suit and without the co-operation of the magistrate, by reciting a prescribed formula, -took an article of property from the debtor to be treated as a pledge or security.. The proceeding bears a marked analogy to dis-tress at common law. Mackeld. Rom. Law, § 208; Gaius, bk. 4, 88 26-29
Source: Black’s Law Dictionary 2nd Ed (1910)
