FIN DE NON RECEVOIR

French law. An exception or plea founded on law, which, without entering into the merits of the action, shows that the plaintiff has no right to bring it, either because the time during which it ought to have been brought has elapsed, which is called prescription, or that there has been a compromise, accord and satisfaction, or any other cause which has destroyed the right of action which once subsisted.
   

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