Actor

Lat. [from agere, to act, to do, to move.'] In the civil and common law. The party who institutes or prosecutes an action, {qui lege agit;) a plaintiff.

Inst. 4. 6. 30, W, 38. Id. 4. 15. 7.

Bract, fol.

106 a, 376 a. 2 BL Com. 25.

Sometimes termed agen Sy and pars actrix.

Inst. 4. 6. 33. Eeg. Orig. 9 a.

In some cases, both parties are regarded as actors; {utergue actor est;) and such actions are termed in the civil law, judicia duplieia, and mixtce actiones; double or mixt actions.

Dig. 44. 7. 37. 1. 1 Macheld. Civ. Law, 188, § 193.

Of this desdiption is the modem action of replevin. But the term actor, even in these cases, properly belongs to the party commencing the proceedings, {ilU actor qui prime provocaverit ad judicium.) Bract, fol.

102 b. 372 a.

In the civil law. A proctor, advocate, or pleader; one who represents a party, and manages his cause, {qui causam agit.) Actor dominicus; the lord's, or king's advocate, or attorney.

Spelman. Cowell.

Actor ecclesicB; the advocate, or pleading patron of a church. Id. In the civil law. A temporary guardian or tutor.

Inst. 1.23.6.

An attorney, bailiff or steward; one who manages or acts for another; Scottice, a doer, which is the literal translation. Actor dominimis; a lord's bailiff. CowelL Actor villa; the steward or head bailiff of a town or village.

Spelman. Cowell.

Actmr •c^Hitar f«ram r«i. The plaintiff follows the forum of the thing [m controversy.] He must sue in the court where the property is; that is, in the court of the place, or country, where the thing {res) in controversy is situate, {sita est;) or, as it is technically expressed, in ih^ forum rei sitoe, (q. V.) 2 Kent's Com. 462, 463.

SUyry's Confi. of Laws, § 325 k.

Every question concerning a subject Ires'] moveable or immoveable, must be determined by the judge whose ]e^ powers extend over that subject. %Mames* Equity, 343. AclmPM«alnir fernmni. The pkuntiff follows the court of the defendant, {reus;) that is, he must sue in the court of the place where the defendant resides. This was a maxim in the time of Bracton. Verum est quod sive laicum sive clericum velit quis convenire, debet adire judicem et sequi forum rei, et judicem habebit ilium apud quern reus habet domidlium, sive domicilium hahuerit sub jurisdictions unius vel duorum. It is true that whether one desires to sue a layman, or a clerk, he must apply to the judge, and follow the court of the defendant, and must have him as his judge with whom the defendant has his domicile, whether he has his domicile under the jurisdiction of one, or two. Bract, fol.

401 a.

But this maxim was not of universal application. Id. ibid. The apparently exact verbal similarity between this and the preceding maxim will not escape notice; the difference consisting in the circumstance that the word rei in the one, is the genitive of res, (a thing,) and in the other, of reus, (a defendant.) A€t«rl i Mcanbit pr«b«ti«. The burden of proof lies on the plaintiff.

Hob. 103 a.