QUINTO EXACTUS
quinto exactus (kwin-toh eg-zak-t<<schwa>>s). [Latin “exacted the fifth time”] Hist. A
sheriff’s return made after a defendant had been called to five county courts but failed to appear. •
The county coroners then ordered that the defendant be deprived of the benefits of the law.
“And, if a non est inventus is returned upon all of them, a writ of exigent or exigi facias may
be sued out, which requires the sheriff to cause the defendant to be proclaimed, required, or
exacted, in five county courts successively, to render himself; and, if he does, then to take him, as
in a capias: but if he does not appear, and is returned quinto exactus, he shall then be outlawed by
the coroners of the county.” 3 William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England 283
(1768). [Blacks Law 8th]