PARTES FINIS NIHIL HABUERUNT

partes finis nihil habuerunt (pahr-teez fI-nis nI-hil hab-yoo-eer-<<schwa>>nt). [Law Latin “the parties to the fine had nothing”] Hist. A plea to set aside a conveyance of land on grounds that the transferor did not have a sufficient ownership interest in the property to alienate it.

“Yet where a stranger… officiously interferes in an estate which in nowise belongs to him, his fine is of no effect; and may at any time be set aside … by pleading that ‘partes finis nihil habuerunt.’ ” 2 William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England 356–57 (1765).

[Blacks Law 8th]