elegit
elegit ([schwa]-lee-jit). [Latin “he has chosen”] Hist. A writ of execution (first given by 13 Edw., ch. 18) either upon a judgment for a debt or damages or upon the forfeiture of a recognizance taken in the king’s court. • Under it, the defendant’s goods and chattels were appraised and, except for plow beasts, delivered to the plaintiff to satisfy the debt. If the goods were not sufficient to pay the debt, then the moiety of the defendant’s freehold lands held at the time of judgment was also delivered to the plaintiff, to hold until the debt was satisfied out of rents and profits or until the defendant’s interest expired. During this period the plaintiff was called tenant by elegit, and the estate an estate by elegit. The writ was abolished in England in 1956, and it is no longer used anywhere in the United States.
