Proceeding in rem
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 321 U.S. 233 - Anderson Nat Bank v. Luckett · 1944Most cited · 786 citing opinions
The statutory procedure, so far as it affects depositors, is in the nature of a proceeding in rem, in the course of which property, against which a claim is asserted, is seized or sequestered, and held subject to the appearance and presentation of claims by all those who assert an adverse interest in it. In all such proceedings the seizure of the property is in itself a form of notice of the claim asserted, to those who may claim an interest in the property.
How the Supreme Court has restated “Proceeding in rem”
Each Supreme Court definition of “Proceeding in rem,” sized by how often later courts cited it. “Change” is measured by wording overlap with earlier definitions — a rough signal, not a semantic judgment.
How often courts cite the cases defining “Proceeding in rem”
Court decisions citing the 10 opinions that defined “Proceeding in rem” — 2,883 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining cases as a whole, not verified uses of the term. The dip in the most recent years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the latest years.
All 10 definitions, chronological · 1864–1944
- ORIGINAL
the proceeding is in the nature of a proceeding in rem, in which the estate is represented by the administrators, and, as in a proceeding in rem in admiralty, all the world are parties
A proceeding in rem, as used in the admiralty courts, is not a remedy afforded by the common law; it is a proceeding under the civil law.
A remedy partaking of all the essential features of an admiralty proceeding in rem [is one where] the vessel may be used and made defendant without any proceeding against the owners, or even mentioning their names. That a writ may be issued and the vessel seized, on filing a petition similar in substance to a libel. That after a notice in the nature of a monition, the vessel may be condemned and an order made for her sale, if the liability is established for which she was sued.
The only object of the proceeding in rem, is to make this right, where it exists, available—to carry it into effect. It subserves no other purpose. The lien and the proceeding in rem are, therefore, correlative—where one exists, the other can be taken, and not otherwise.
if there is no appearance of the defendant, and no service of process on him, the case becomes, in its essential nature, a proceeding in rem, the only effect of which is to subject the property attached to the payment of the demand which the court may find to be due to the plaintiff
the suit in all such cases is a suit against the owner of the property and not against the property as an offending thing, as in case where the libel is in rem in the Admiralty Court to enforce a maritime lien in the property
The proceeding in rem which is within the exclusive jurisdiction of admiralty is one essentially against the vessel itself as the debtor or offending thing,—in which the vessel is itself 'seized and impleaded as the defendant, and is judged and sentenced accordingly.' By virtue of dominion over the thing all persons interested in it are deemed to be parties to the suit; the decree binds all the world, and under it the property itself passes, and not merely the title or interest of a personal defendant.
It is the property which is proceeded against, and, by resort to a legal fiction, held guilty and condemned as though it were conscious instead of inanimate and insentient.
A characteristic feature of the maritime law is its use of the procedure in rem derived from the civil law, by which a libellant may proceed against the vessel, naming her as a defendant and seeking a judgment subjecting the vessel, and hence the interests of all persons in her, to the satisfaction of the asserted claim.