Non Tenuit, Non Tenure

NON TENUIT - He did not hold. The name of a plea in bar in replevin, when the plaintiff has avowed for rent arrear, by which the plaintiff avows that he did not hold in manner and form as the avowry alleges.

NON TENURE - A plea in a real action, by which the defendant asserted that he did not hold the land, or at least some part of it, as mentioned in the plaintiff's declaration.

Non tenure is either a plea in bar or a plea in abatement. It is in bar when the plea goes to the tenure, as when the tenant denies that he holds of the defendant and says he holds of some other person. But when the plea goes to the tenancy of the land as when the defendant pleads that be is not the tenant of the land, it is in abatement only.
   

This entry contains material from Bouvier's Legal Dictionary, a work published in the 1850's.