Penal action

In practice

An action upon a penal statute; an action for the recovery of a penalty given by statute.

3 Steph. 635, 536.

Distinguished from a popular or qui tam action, in which the action is brought by the informer, to whom part of the penalty goed. A penal action or information is brought by an officer, and the penalty goes to the king.

1 Chit. Gen. Pr. 25, note; 2 Archb. Pr. 188.

But in American law, the term includes actions brought by informers or other private persons, as well as those instituted by governments or public officers. In a broad sense, the term has been made to include all actions in which there may be a recovery of exemplary or vindictive damages, as sui is for libel and slander, or in which special, double, or treble damages are given by statute, such as actions to recover money paid as usury or lost in gaming.

See Bailey v. Dean, 5 Barb. (N. Y.) 303; Ashley v. Frame, 4 Kan. App. 265, 45 Pac. 927; Cole v. Groves, 134 Mass. 472.

But in a more particular sense it means (1) an action on a statute which gives a certain penalty to be recovered by any person who will sue for it, (In re Barker. 56 Vt. 20,) or (2) an action in which the judgment against the defendant is in the nafure of a fine or is intended as a punishment, actions in which the recovery is to be compensatory in its purpose and effect not being penal actions but civil suits, though they may carry special damages by statute.

See Moller v. U. S., 57 Fed. 490 , 6 C. C. A. 459; Atlanta v. Chattanooga Foundry & Pipe Works, 127 Fed. 23, 61 C. C. A. 387, 64 L. It. A. 721