MISKENNING

miskenning (mis-ken-ing). [fr. French misw “wrong” + Saxon cennan “to declare”] 1. A

wrongful summons. 2. A pleading mistake or irregularity.

“But every defeated plaintiff could be amerced ‘for a false claim.’ Incidentally too any falsehood … that is, any fraudulent misuse of the machinery of the law, would be punished by imprisonment. Then again every default in appearance brought an amercement on the defaulter and his pledges. Every mistake in pleading, every miskenning… brought an amercement on the pleader if the mistake was to be retrieved. A litigant who hoped to get to the end of his suit without an amercement must have been a sanguine man; for he was playing a game of forfeits.” 2 Frederick Pollock & Frederic W. Maitland, The History of English Law Before the Time of Edward I 519 (2d ed. 1899).

[Blacks Law 8th]