from
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856)
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. Poth. Proc. Civ. partie
1, c. 2, s. 2, art. 2; Story, Confl. of Laws, Sec. 580.