Mesne

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Mesne \Mesne\, a. [Cf. {Mean} intermediate.] (Law)
     Middle; intervening; as, a mesne lord, that is, a lord who
     holds land of a superior, but grants a part of it to another
     person, in which case he is a tenant to the superior, but
     lord or superior to the second grantee, and hence is called
     the mesne lord.


     [1913 Webster]
  
     {Mesne process}, intermediate process; process intervening
        between the beginning and end of a suit, sometimes
        understood to be the whole process preceding the
        execution. --Blackstone. --Burrill.
  
     {Mesne profits}, profits of premises during the time the
        owner has been wrongfully kept out of the possession of
        his estate. --Burrill.
        [1913 Webster] Meso

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  MESNE. The middle between two extremes, that part between the commencement 
  and the end, as it relates to time. 
       2. Hence the profits which a man receives between disseisin and 
  recovery of lands are called mesne profits. (q.v.) Process which is issued 
  in a suit between the original and final process, is called mesne process. 
  (q.v.) 
       3. In England, the word mesne also applies to a dignity: those persons 
  who hold lordships or manors of some superior who is called lord paramount, 
  and grant the same to inferior persons, are called mesne lords. 
  
  

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  MESNE, WRIT of. The name of an ancient writ, which lies when: the lord 
  paramount distrains on the tenant paravail; the latter shall have a writ of 
  mesne against the lord who is mesne. F. N. B. 316.