F 1 N 
F I N 
To FINE, v. ». To pay a fine 5 
What poet ever fin'd for (lie riff ? or who 
By rhimes or verfe did ever lord-mayor grow ? Oldham. 
FINE OF LANDS. The law on this fubjeift, of it- 
felf very extenfive, is alfo clofely implicated with that 
of recoveries. See the article Recovery. A fin e, finis, 
or finalis concordia ; from the words with which it begins ; 
and alfo from its effedl in putting a final end to all fuits 
and contentions, is a folemn amicable agreement or com- 
pofition of a fttit, (whether that fuit be real or Additions,) 
made between the demandant and tenant, with the confent 
of the judges, and enrolled among the records of the 
court where the fuit was commenced ; by which agree¬ 
ment freehold property may be transferred, fettled, and 
-Jimited. The mold diftinguilhable properties of a fine are, 
1. The extinguilhing dormant titles by barring ((rangers, 
unlefs they .claim within five years. 2. Barring the iffue 
in tail immediately. 3. Binding femes covert. Thefe 
conftitute the peculiar qualities on account of which a 
fine is mod ufually, if not always, reforted to as one of 
the mold valuable of the common affurances of the realm ; 
being now, in fadd, a fidlitious proceeding to transfer or 
fecure real property by a mode more efficacious than or¬ 
dinary conveyances. 1 Lift. 121. 
Fines being agreements folemnly made in the king’s 
courts, were deemed to be of equal notoriety with judg¬ 
ments in writs of right; and therefore the common law 
allowed them to have the fame quality of barring all who 
ffiould not claim within a year and a day. Plozvd. 357. 
Hence we may probably date the origin and life of fines 
as feigned proceedings. But this puiffance of a fine was 
taken away by 34 Edw. III. c. 16. and this ftatute con¬ 
tinued in force till 1 Rich. III. c, 7. and 4 lien. VII. c. 
24. which revived the ancient law, though with fome 
change, proclamations being required to make fines more 
notorious, and the time for claiming being enlarged from 
a year and a day to five years. The force of fines on the 
rights of ((rangers being thus regulated, it has ever fince 
been a common pnffifice to levy them merely for better 
guarding a title againft claims, which, under the common 
ftatutes of limitation, might fublift with a right of entry 
for twenty years, and with a right of action for a much 
longer time. 
A recovery, in its mod extenfive fenfe, is a refiitution 
to a former right by the folemn judgment of a court of 
juftice. In its general acceptation a common recovery is 
a judgment in a fictitious fuit, brought againft the tenant 
of the freehold, obtained in confequence of a default made 
by the perfon who is la(t vouched to warranty in fuch 
fictitious fuit. The common recovery that is ufed for af- 
furance of land is nothing elfe but JiBio juris, or a certain 
form or courfe fet down by law to be obferved for the 
better affiuring of lands and tenements to men. And this 
is fomewhat after the example of recovery upon title, 
which is without confent and contrary to the will of him 
againft whom the fame is had ; for there is in this a co¬ 
lourable fuit, wherein there is a demandant who is called 
the recoveror, and a tenant who is called the recoveree; 
and one that is called (or vouched) to warrant upon a 
fuppofed warranty, who is called the vouchee. Con- 
fidered as a legal affurance or conveyance, it is a fiftion 
of law, adopted for the purpofe of deftroying that fpecies 
of perpetuity which was created by the ftatute dc donis, 
13 Edw. I. ft. 1. c. 1. and whereby all tenants in tail are 
enabled, by purfuing the proper form, to bar their eftates- 
tail. And not only this, but it is alfo a bar to all re¬ 
mainders and reverfions depending on fuch eftate-tail fo 
barred ; and to all charges and incumbrances created by 
the perfons in remainder and reyerfion. 1 Rep. 62. But a 
common recovery does not bar an executory devife, unlefs 
the executory devifee comes in as a vouchee. Fearne 306. 
And, by ((at. 21 Hen. VIII. c. 15. no eftate held by fta- 
tute-merchant, ftaple, orelegit } (hall be avoided by means 
■of a feigned recovery. 
Von. VII. No. 434. 
i it 
Though a recovery, generally (peaking, is a more exten¬ 
five fpecies of conveyance than a fine, to guard an eftate 
again?! all claims and incumbrances, yet the operation of 
each is not feldom neceffiiry in aid of the other. A fine is 
therefore often levied for the purpofe of creating a good 
tenant to the pracipe, on which the recovery is (offered ; 
and a recovery is frequently fullered in order to operate 
as a difcontinuance of an eftate-tail, for the purpofe of 
barring remainders or reverfions depending on fuch eftates- 
tail; and thus a conveyance by fine and recovery, if ttn- 
reverfed, bars all the world. A fine is technically (aid 
to b e levied-, a recovery to befiififcred. Writers, however, 
have too frequently confounded the terms. 
Fines are of equal antiquity with the firft rudiments of 
our law itfelf; fo that the fiat. 16 Edw. I. called modus 
levandifines, did not give them original, but only declared > 
and regulated the manner in which they fliould be levied 
and carried on ; which is as follows : Firft, The party to 
whom the land is to be conveyed or allured, commences 
an ablion or fuit at law againft the other, generally an ac¬ 
tion of covenant, though a fine may alfo be levied on a 
writ of tnefne, of zvarrantia chart A, or de confiuetudinibus et 
fi'ervitiis, by filing out a writ of pracipo called a writ of 
covenant ; the foundation of which is a fuppofed agree¬ 
ment or covenant that the one (hall convey the lands to 
the other ; on the breach of which agreement the aftiotx 
is brought. On this writ there is due to the king, by 
ancient prerogative, a primer fine, or a noble for every 
five marks of land fued for; that is, one-tenth of the an¬ 
nua! value. The fuit being thus commenced, then fol¬ 
lows : Secondly, The licenlia concordandi, or leave to agree 
the fuit; for, as foon as the adfion is brought, the de¬ 
fendant, knowing himfelf to be in the wrong, is fuppofed 
to make overtures of peace and accommodation to the 
plaintiff; who accepting them, but having upon filing 
out the writ, given pledges to profecute his fuit, which 
he endangers if he now deferts it without licence, lie 
therefore applies to the court for leave to make the mat¬ 
ter.up. This leave is readily granted, blit for it there is 
alfo another fine due to the king by his prerogative, which 
is an ancient revenue of the crown, and is called the king’s 
filver, or fometimes the pojlfine, with refpedt to the pri¬ 
mer fine before-mentioned. And it is as much as the 
primer fine, and half as much more, or ten (hillings for 
every five marks ofland ; that is, three-twentieths of the 
fuppofed annual value. Thirdly comes the concord, or 
agreement itfelf, after leave obtained from the court; 
this is ufually an acknowledgment from the deforciants 
(or thole who keep the other out of pofi’eflion) that the 
lands in queftion are the right of the complainant. And 
from this acknowledgment, or recognition of right, the 
party levying the fine is called the cognifor, and he to 
whom it is levied the cognifee. This acknowledgment 
mud be made either openly in the court of common-pleas, 
or before the lord chief juftice of that court, or elfe be¬ 
fore one of the judges of that court; or two or more 
commiffioners in the country, empowered by a fpecial 
authority called a writ of dedimus potejlatcm ; which judges 
and commiffioners are bound by ftar. iS Edw. I. ft. 4. to 
take care that the cognifors be of full age, found memo¬ 
ry, and out of prifon. By thefe acts all the effential 
parts of a fine are completed ; and if the cognifor dies 
the next moment after the fine is acknowledged, pro¬ 
vided it be fubfequent to the day on which the writ is made 
returnable, Kill the fine (hall be carried on in all its re¬ 
maining parts. Comb, 71. It mu ft then be enrolled of re¬ 
cord in the proper office, by direction of flat. 5 Hen. IV. 
c. 14. The final part is the foot of the fine, or conclu- 
(ion of it; which includes the whole matter, reciting the 
parties, day, year, and place, and before whom it was ac¬ 
knowledged or levied. Of this there are indentures made 
or engrofted at the chirographer’s oftice, and delivered to 
the cognifor and the cognifee, ufually beginning thus : 
Hxc efifinalis concordia, “ This is the final agreementand 
5 D then 
