Legal Definitions - id non agebatur

Id non agebatur is a Latin legal phrase, historically used in Scots law, meaning "that was not done" or "that was not the intention." It is employed to emphasize that a specific outcome or consequence was not the primary goal or consideration behind an action, even if that outcome ultimately occurred as a result of the action.

Here are some examples to illustrate this concept:

• Business Strategy: A technology company decides to outsource its customer support operations to a third-party vendor with the explicit goal of reducing operational costs and improving service efficiency. While the outsourcing achieves these goals, it also inadvertently leads to a temporary decline in employee morale among the in-house staff who previously handled support.

  In this scenario, the decline in employee morale was id non agebatur. It was not the company's intended purpose or primary consideration when making the outsourcing decision, even though it was an unfortunate side effect. The company's stated and primary intention was cost reduction and efficiency improvement.

• Property Development: A property developer undertakes a major renovation of an old apartment complex, with the stated purpose of modernizing the units and enhancing the building's aesthetic appeal to attract a new demographic of tenants. During the renovation, the construction noise and temporary utility interruptions cause significant inconvenience to the few remaining existing tenants.

  The inconvenience to existing tenants was id non agebatur. The developer's primary intention was not to disrupt the current residents but to improve the property for future occupants. The disruption, while a direct consequence of the renovation, was not the developer's intended aim or purpose.

• Charitable Giving: An individual makes a substantial donation to a university specifically to fund scholarships for underprivileged students, clearly outlining this purpose in their gift agreement. Later, due to an administrative oversight by a university employee, a small portion of the funds is temporarily misallocated to a different departmental budget before being corrected.

  The temporary misallocation of funds was id non agebatur. The donor's clear and singular intention was to support student scholarships. The administrative error, while it occurred, was not the donor's purpose or what they intended to achieve with their donation.