Public-domain · open source
OpenJurist

Petitory Action

Black's Law Dictionary · Henry Campbell Black, M.A. · 1910

Black's Law Dictionary

A droitural action ; that is, one in which the plaintiff seeks to establish and enforce, by an appropriate legal proceeding, his right of property or his title, to the subject-matter in dispute; as distinguished from a possessory action, where the right to the possession is the point in litigation, and not the mere right of property. The term is chiefly used in admiralty.

1 Kent, Comm. 371; The Tilton, 5 Mason. 465, Fed. Cas. No. 14,054.

In Scotch law

Actions in which damages are sought