Legal Definitions - elongatus

Elongatus refers to a formal report submitted by a sheriff to a court. This report is made in response to a specific type of court order, historically known as a writ de homine replegiando, which commands the sheriff to locate and bring a particular individual before the court. An elongatus report indicates that the sheriff was unable to fulfill this order because the person in question has been moved, or 'eloigned,' out of the sheriff's legal jurisdiction.

Essentially, it's a sheriff's official declaration that the individual sought by a court order is no longer within the geographical area where that sheriff has the legal authority to act.

• Example 1: Child Custody Dispute

  Imagine a court in County A issues an order for the local sheriff to retrieve a child from one parent and return them to the other, based on a custody agreement. Before the sheriff can execute this order, the parent with the child quickly moves with the child to a different state, County B, which is outside the jurisdiction of the County A sheriff. The County A sheriff would then file an elongatus report with the court, stating that they cannot fulfill the order because the child has been moved out of their legal territory.

  This illustrates elongatus as the sheriff's formal notification that the subject of the court order (the child) is no longer within their area of authority, preventing them from taking action.

• Example 2: Fugitive from Justice

  A local court issues an order for the sheriff to bring a specific individual before the court for a hearing, perhaps due to a contempt of court charge or a civil matter requiring their presence. However, before the sheriff's deputies can locate the individual, they learn of the order and flee across state lines to avoid appearing in court. The sheriff, after attempting to locate the person within their county, would file an elongatus report, indicating that the individual has been conveyed outside their jurisdiction, making it impossible to execute the court's order locally.

  Here, elongatus signifies the sheriff's official statement that the person sought by the court has moved beyond the boundaries of their legal power.

• Example 3: Unlawful Detention (Historical Context)

  In a historical scenario, if a person was believed to be unlawfully detained or kidnapped within a particular county, a court might issue a writ de homine replegiando for the sheriff to recover them. If the captors, upon learning of the writ, quickly moved the detained person to a remote location in an adjacent county or even across a national border, the original sheriff would be unable to act. The sheriff, upon discovering the person was no longer within their county's boundaries, would make an elongatus return to the court.

  This example highlights the historical application where a person was literally "conveyed out" of the sheriff's area of authority, rendering the court's writ impossible to execute by that specific sheriff.