Utile per inutile non vitiatur : What is useful is not vitiated by the useless
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This Latin maxim of law is primarily of assistance in dealing with pleadings - that the Court may salvage from a pleading sufficient allegations of fact and law to find for the litigant even though parts of the pleadings are immaterial, irrelevant, struck or stand unproven.
"... it is well settled as a general rule of pleading, in criminal as well as civil cases, that mere surplusage will not vitiate, the maxim being that utile per inutile non vitiatur."
In French v. Clinchfield Coal Corporation, these words were part of the Supreme Court of Virginia's judgment:
"Admittedly the instrument would have been free from objection if the words of the court had been omitted. Those words, it will be observed, are not necessary to give meaning to the paper, and neither their presence nor absence can affect its validity. They are, in short, merely superfluous, and may be rejected. Utile per inutile non vitiatur."
In his well-known book on Latin legal maxims first published in 1845, Herbert Broom considered utile per inutile non vitiatur to be a fundamental legal principle. He proposed this translation:
"Surplusage does not vitiate that which in other respects is good and valid."
"... it is well settled as a general rule of pleading, in criminal as well as civil cases, that mere surplusage will not vitiate, the maxim being that utile per inutile non vitiatur."
In French v. Clinchfield Coal Corporation, these words were part of the Supreme Court of Virginia's judgment:
"Admittedly the instrument would have been free from objection if the words of the court had been omitted. Those words, it will be observed, are not necessary to give meaning to the paper, and neither their presence nor absence can affect its validity. They are, in short, merely superfluous, and may be rejected. Utile per inutile non vitiatur."
In his well-known book on Latin legal maxims first published in 1845, Herbert Broom considered utile per inutile non vitiatur to be a fundamental legal principle. He proposed this translation:
"Surplusage does not vitiate that which in other respects is good and valid."
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