QUOMINUS
quominus (kwoh-m<<schwa>>-n<<schwa>>s or kwoh-mI-n<<schwa>>s). [Latin quo minus
“by which the less”] Hist. A 14th-century Exchequer writ alleging that the plaintiff had lent the
defendant a sum of money and that the plaintiff was unable to repay a debt of similar amount to
the Crown because of the debt to the defendant. • In effect, the plaintiff pleaded the fiction that he
was a debtor of the king who could not repay that debt because of the defendant’s failure to repay
him. — Also termed writ of quominus.
“[W]hat in the beginning had been permitted as a means of collecting the royal revenue came
in the end to be nothing more or less than permitting any citizen to sue in the court of the king in
order to collect a private debt. The old pretense that the matter concerned the royal revenue had to
be kept up, and accordingly A had to allege that he was ‘less able’ to pay the king when his
debtors would not pay him. But everyone, even the court itself, recognized this as a mere fiction,
and that since the suit was in fact between A and B, B was not permitted to bring in other matters,
such for example as a defense on the ground that A did not actually owe any taxes to the crown.
This fiction came to be known as the ‘quo minus’ fiction, because these were the Latin words used
in the litigation, which meant that A was ‘less able’ to pay the king.” Charles Herman Kinnane, A
First Book on Anglo-American Law 265–66 (2d ed. 1952). [Blacks Law 8th]