ACTION (Lat. agere, to do). A doing of something; something done.
The formal demand of one's right from another person, made and insisted on in a court of justice. In a quite common sense, action includes all the formal proceedings in a court of justice attendant upon the de mand of a right made by one person of an other in such court, including an adjudica tion upon the right and its enforcement or denial by the court.
In the Institutes of Justinian an action is defined as jus persequendi in judicio quod MIA debetur (the right of pursuing in a judicial tribunal what is due one's self); Inst. 4. 6. In the Digest, however, where the signification of the word is expressly treated of, it is said, Anti° generaliter sumitur; eel pro ipso jure quod quis habet persequendi in judioio quod swum est sibive debetur; Del pro kw ipsa per secutione seu juris exercitio (Action in general Is taken • either as that right which each one has of pursuing in a judicial tribunal his own or what Is due him; or as the pursuit itself or exercise of the right) ; Dig. 50. 16. 16. Action was also said con tinere formam agendi (to include the form of pro ceeding); Dig. 1. 2. 10.
This definition of action has been adopted by lor (Civ. Law, p. 50). These forms were prescribed by the prmtore originally, and were to be very strictly followed. The actions to which they applied were said to be stricti and the slightest vari ation from the form prescribed was fatal. They were first reduced to a system by Appius Claudius, and were surreptitiously published by his clerk, Cneius Flavlus. The publication was so pleasing to the people that Flavius was made a tribune of the people, a senator, and a curuie edile (a somewhat more magnificent return than is apt to await the labors of the editor of a modern book of forms); Dig. 1. 2. 5.
These forms were. very minute, and included the form for pronouncing the decision. See ACTIO. In' modern law The signification of the right of pursuing, etc., has been generally dropped, though it is recognized by Bracton, 98 b; Coke, 2d Inst. 40; 3 Bla. Corn. 116; while the two latter senses of the exercise of the right and the means or method of its exercise are still found.
The vital idea of an action is a proceeding on the part of one person as actor against another, for the infringement of some right of the first, before a court of justice, in the manner prescribed by the court or the law.
Subordinate to this is now connected in a quite common use, the idea of the answer of the defend ant or person proceeded against; the adducing evi dence by each party to sustain hie position ; the adjudication of the court upon the right of the plaintiff; and the means taken to enforce the right or recompense the wrong done, in case the right is established and shown to have been injuriously af fected.
Actions are to be distinguished from those pro ceedinge, such as writ of error, scire facies, man damus, and the like, where, under the form of pro ceedings, the court, and not the plaintiff, appears to be the actor ; Corn. v. Commissioners of Lancaster County, 6 Sinn. (Pa.) 9. And the term is not regu larly applied, it would seem, • to proceedings in a court of equity; Allen v. Partlow, 3 S. C. 417; UI shafer v. Stewart, 71 Pa. 170.
In the Civil Law.
Civil Actions.—Those personal actions which are instituted to compel payments or do some other thing purely civil. Pothier, Introd. Gen. aux Coutumes 110.
Criminal Actions.—Those personal actions in which the plaintiff asks reparation for the commission of some tort or injury which he or those who belong to him have sustained.
Mixed Actions are-those which partake of the nature of both real and personal actions; as, actions of partition, actions to recover property and damages. Just. Inst. 4, 6, 18 20; Domat, Supp. des Lois Civiles liv. 4, tit. 1, n. 4.
Mixed Personal Actions are those which partake of both a civil and a criminal char acter.
Personal Actions are those in which one person (actor) sues another as defendant (reue) in respect of some obligation which he is under to the actor, either ex contractu or ex delicto, to perform some act or make some compensation.
Real Actions.—Those by which a person seeks to recover his property which is in the possession of another.
In the Common Law.
The action properly is said to terminate at judgment; Co. Litt. 289 a; Rolle, Abr. 291; 3 Bla. Com. 116.
Civil Actions.—Those actions which have for their object the recovery of private or civil rights, or of compensation for their infraction.
Criminal Actions.—Those actions prosecut ed in a court of justice, in the name of the government, against one or more individuals accused of a crime. See 1 Chitty, Crim. Law.
Local Actions.—Those civil actions which can be brought only in the county or other territorial jurisdiction in which the cause of action arose. See LOCAL ACTION.
Mixed Actions.—Those which partake of the nature of both real and personal actions.
Personal Actions.—Those civil actions which are brought for the recovery of per sonal property, for the enforcement of some contract, or to recover damages for the corn mission of an injury to the person or prop< erty. See PERSONAL ACTION.
Real Actions.—Those brought for the spe cific recovery of lands, tenements, or her editaments. Steph. Pl. 3. See REAL ACTION.
Transitory Actions.— Those civil actions the cause of which might well have arisen in one place or county as well as another. See TRANSITORY ACTION.