Declinatory

[…] that the prisoner should first be arraigned, and might either then claim his benefit of clergy, by way of declinatory plea, or after conviction by way of arresting judgment.

Declinatory exceptions do not tend to defeat the demand, but only to decline the jurisdiction of the judge before whom it is brought.

That case, like the present one, involved a declinatory exception by the respondent State when it was sued for fees for legal services and for an accounting.