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  3. Law (general)

send someone hence without day

German translation: abweisen

15:33 Apr 7, 2008
English to German translations [PRO]
Law/Patents - Law (general) / Answer to Complaint (US, Florida)
English term or phrase: send someone hence without day
"Count I
1. [...]
2. [...]
3. [...]
WHEREFORE X requests this Court to enter its judgement for X, denying the claims of Y, and *** sending Y hence without day***."

I found a good explanation of "to go without day" at http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-goh1.htm.
Does this have a similar meaning?
Bettina Rittsteuer
Austria
Local time: 17:11
German translation:abweisen
Explanation:
Weshalb X das Gericht bittet, [...] die Klage von Y abzuweisen.

same source as quoted above, but the link didn't work for me:

[Q] From Bob Nelson, Tobyhanna, PA, USA: “The last sentence of a ruling by Judge N. Sanders Sauls in Yet Another Election Trial in Florida contains the phrase go hence without day. At first, I thought it was merely a typo and should have read go hence without delay, but a search on the Web turned up 31 instances of that exact phrase, all from legal documents or minutes of legal proceedings. Where did this phrase come from, and what does it mean?”

[A] Go hence without day — henceforth you will only be allowed nights. It sounds weird and I’m not surprised you were brought up short by it. I hadn’t come across this before and the Oxford English Dictionary marks it as obsolete. It’s an Anglicisation of the Latin phrase sine die, which looks as though it might mean without day, but actually means without a day. It means that a date has not been set for resuming a hearing or calling another meeting, and it can refer either to an indefinite postponement or a permanent abandonment of proceedings. If a meeting is adjourned sine die or without day it can mean either that a date for resumption will be set later, or that you shouldn’t live in hope of another one, ever.

Not being too familiar with American legal practice (though recent events have done a lot to change that) I checked with James E Clapp, author of the Random House Webster’s Dictionary of the Law. He confirmed this was the explanation and also told me that both sine die and without day are used in American legislative and judicial practice. He added: “When the regular annual or biennial session of a legislature comes to an end, it adjourns without day, meaning that in the normal course of events that’s the end of it. But if an emergency arises, the legislators might be called back into special session. On the other hand, when a case is dismissed and the defendant is told that he may go hence without day, it really means that the defendant is permanently freed — except for the possibility of a reversal on appeal”.

What has happened is that an incorrect English translation of the Latin tag has become an idiom, meaningless in itself, but well understood by all legal practitioners in the United States (as the OED says, it is obsolete in the UK).
Selected response from:

Allesklar
Australia
Local time: 00:41
Grading comment
Danke!
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
3abweisen
Allesklar


Discussion entries: 1





  

Answers


10 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5
abweisen


Explanation:
Weshalb X das Gericht bittet, [...] die Klage von Y abzuweisen.

same source as quoted above, but the link didn't work for me:

[Q] From Bob Nelson, Tobyhanna, PA, USA: “The last sentence of a ruling by Judge N. Sanders Sauls in Yet Another Election Trial in Florida contains the phrase go hence without day. At first, I thought it was merely a typo and should have read go hence without delay, but a search on the Web turned up 31 instances of that exact phrase, all from legal documents or minutes of legal proceedings. Where did this phrase come from, and what does it mean?”

[A] Go hence without day — henceforth you will only be allowed nights. It sounds weird and I’m not surprised you were brought up short by it. I hadn’t come across this before and the Oxford English Dictionary marks it as obsolete. It’s an Anglicisation of the Latin phrase sine die, which looks as though it might mean without day, but actually means without a day. It means that a date has not been set for resuming a hearing or calling another meeting, and it can refer either to an indefinite postponement or a permanent abandonment of proceedings. If a meeting is adjourned sine die or without day it can mean either that a date for resumption will be set later, or that you shouldn’t live in hope of another one, ever.

Not being too familiar with American legal practice (though recent events have done a lot to change that) I checked with James E Clapp, author of the Random House Webster’s Dictionary of the Law. He confirmed this was the explanation and also told me that both sine die and without day are used in American legislative and judicial practice. He added: “When the regular annual or biennial session of a legislature comes to an end, it adjourns without day, meaning that in the normal course of events that’s the end of it. But if an emergency arises, the legislators might be called back into special session. On the other hand, when a case is dismissed and the defendant is told that he may go hence without day, it really means that the defendant is permanently freed — except for the possibility of a reversal on appeal”.

What has happened is that an incorrect English translation of the Latin tag has become an idiom, meaningless in itself, but well understood by all legal practitioners in the United States (as the OED says, it is obsolete in the UK).


    Reference: http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-goh1.htm
Allesklar
Australia
Local time: 00:41
Works in field
Native speaker of: German
PRO pts in category: 11
Grading comment
Danke!
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