Recoup

s To cut out a part: to keep back, withhold part of a sum demanded. Recoupment. Reduction of a demand. " Recoupe " is synonymous with defalk or discount. ''Recoupment" is keeping back something alleged to be due, because there is an equitable reason for withholding it.6 For example, in an action for damages due on a contract, the defendant may recoup the damages he has sustained from the imperfect execution of the work.' Arises where there is an action upon a contract, or some obligation arising out of it, and there has been a breach of a divisible part of it or of such obligation. ^ Means a cutting back on the plaintiff's claim by the defendant. Properly applicable to a case where the same contract imposes mutual duties and obligations, and one part.y seeks a remedy for the breach of the ' Nesling v. Wells, 104 U. S. 438-41 (1881), cases, Matthews, J.; Moore v. Simonds, 100 id. 145 (1875); 1 Greenl. Ev. § 484; 1 Story, Eq. §§ 403-4; 4 Wheat. 487. ' See 3 Bl. Com. 34, 37, 195. s Weaver v. Mining Co., 89 N. C. 189 (1883), cases. 'Wilson D. Horner, 59 Pa. 155 (1868); 10 Me. 1.34; 1 Chitty, Plead. 356. *F. recoupe^ a shred: recouper^ to cut again. Compare Coupon. • [Ives V. Van Bpps, 22 Wend. 166 (1839): Tomlins' Law Diet. duty by the second, and the second meets the demand by a claim for a breach of duty by the first. ^ It is the right to set off unliquidated damages. *' Set-off " comprehends only liquidated demands, or depiands which are capable of being ascertained by calculation.^ Anciently, it was applied to the right of deduction from the damages claimed by the plaintiff on account of part-payment, depreciation or failure of consideration, or some analogous act. The right is now recognized under the name of deduction or reduction of damages; while the meaning of recoupment has been greatly enlarged and changed — extended to crossdemands existing in favor of the defendant, and arising out of the same contract or transaction upon which the plaintiff founds his action.' See Defalcation; Set-opf.

or BECOUPE. To deduct or keep back; to withhold part of a demand, from equitable reasons. Recoupment, or recoupement: discount; abatement or reduction of a demand. These words are nearly synonymous with defalk or defalcation, in their innocent sense, and not as implying embezzlement or breach of trust. They imply that something is to be taken off from a demand, on the ground of equities growing out of the whole transaction, which wai Tant a reduction. Recoup is a term of French origin, and signifies cutting again, or cutting back; and, in application to matter of defence in a suit, a defence means the cutting back on the plaintiff's claim by the defendant. Like reduction, it is of necessity limited to diminishing the amount of the plaintiff's claim, and does not give defendant a right to an affirmative judgment for a sai-plus. It is properly applicable to a case where the same contract imposes mutual duties and obligations on the two parties, and one seeks a remedy for the breach of duty by the second, and the second meets the demand by a claim for the breach of duty by the first. Davenport v. Hubbard, 46 Vt. 200. There is an important distinction between recoupment and set-off or counter-claim. Recoupment applies to equities growing out of the veiy affair from which the principal demand arises, set-off to cross-demands which may be independent in origin. The case of an employer sued for the agreed price of work done for him, who claims an abatement from the contract sum by reason of damages he has sustained through the unskilful or unfaithful performance of the work, is an example of recoupment; for the demand and the deduction have their foundations in the same transaction. The case of independent judgments judged a satisfaction, as far as its amount admits, of the larger, is an example of set-off. Counter-claim (j. v.) is the name of the way by which, under codes of reformed procedure, a right of set-off or recoupment may, in a proper case, be set up; it is a term relating to the remedy, not to the substance of the right.