Also known as: de facto · ipso facto
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A Latin term meaning in or by the fact. It appears in established legal phrases such as de facto and ipso facto to denote something that exists or occurs as a matter of actual fact rather than by formal legal recognition.
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State officials enacted a statute declaring that only state-issued notes could satisfy private debts. A merchant refused payment in federal currency and invoked the constitutional bar. The court held the statute invalid because it attempted to make something other than gold and silver coin a legal tender after the fact of the underlying contracts.
An adult who had raised a child for nine years filed a parentage action after the child turned eighteen. The court dismissed the petition because the claimant had not commenced the proceeding while the child remained under the statutory age limit.
A legislature passed a statute extending the limitations period for an offense after the original period had already expired. The defendant moved to dismiss the indictment. The court granted the motion because the new law retroactively altered the legal consequences attached to conduct completed years earlier.
Congress enacted a criminal statute that punished conduct occurring before its passage. A defendant charged under the new law sought dismissal. The court ruled the prosecution could not proceed because the statute imposed punishment for acts completed before the law existed.
Prosecutors charged a juvenile with an act that would be a crime if committed by an adult. The trial court applied a preponderance standard. The reviewing court reversed because due process requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt of every fact necessary to constitute the offense.
A nonresident was served with process while briefly present in the forum state on unrelated business. The defendant moved to quash service. The court upheld jurisdiction because physical presence at the time of service supplies the requisite authority to render a personal judgment.
It denotes something occurring or existing as a matter of actual fact. The term supplies the factual component in expressions such as de facto parent and ex post facto law.
…to a suit for its collection. Historically the jurisdiction of courts to render judgment in personam is grounded on their de facto power over the defendant’s person. Hence his presence within the territorial jurisdiction of a court was prerequisite to its rendition of a judgment personally binding him. Pennoyer v.…