Real Action

In Civil Law. One by which a person seeks to recover his property which is in the possession of another.

Dig. 50. 16. 16.

It is to be brought against the person who has possession. At Common Law. One brought for the specific recovery of lands, tenements, or upon the right of property, and possessory when based upon the right of possession. They are either writs of right; writs of entry upon disseisin (which lie in the per, the per et cui, or the post), intrusion, or alienation; writs ancestral possessory, as mort d’ancestor, aiel, besaiel, cossinage, or nuper obiit Com. Dig. Actions (D 2). The former class was divided into droitural, founded upon demandant’s own seisin, and ancestral droitural upon the demandant’s claim in respect of a mere right descended to him from an ancestor. Possessory actions were divided in the same way — as to the demandant’s own seisin and as to that of his ancestor. These actions were always local, and were to be brought in the country where the land lay; Bracton 180, 414. They are now pretty generally laid aside in practice, upon account of the great nicety required in their management, and the inconvenient length of their process, — a much more expeditious method of trying titles being since introduced by other actions, personal and mixed.

See Stearns; Booth, Real Act; Bac. Abr. Actions; Com. Dig. Actions; 3 Bla. Com. 118; Action’.