exhibendum, actio ad

A praetorian action in personam (Inst. iv. 6, 31), usually of a preliminary character, by which a plaintiff who was unable to pursue his right by legal process without the production of a thing, could enforce such production upon any person who was able to make it (Dig. x. 4, 2); and it was immaterial whether that person was owner, or had civil or merely natural possession, of the thing in question (Dig. ib. 3, 15), or had fraudulently parted with the possession of it (Dig. ib. 5, 2); but it was essential that the plaintiff should have a pecuniary or proprietary interest in the production, or else the action would not lie (Dig. ib. 13).