Recoupe

or RECOUP (from Law Fr. reeouper, to cut again, or to cut out and keep back). To diminish a claim for damages by cutting out or keeping back a part. Cowell interprets it, "to defalk or discount." Where a man had ten pounds issuing out of certain lands, and he disseised the tenant of the land, in an assize brought by the disseisee, the disseisor might recoupe the rent in the damages, in order to avoid circuity of action. 5 Coke, 30a. An executor de son tort is not allowed to retain or recoupe any part of the deceased's goods to satisfy his own debt. Id.; 3 Campb. 282. This old word has been revived to a considerable extent in modern law. "Where a man brings an action for breach of a contract between him and the defendant, and the latter can show that some stipulation in the same contract was made by the plaintiff, which he has violated, the defendant may if he choose, instead of suing in his turn, recoupe his damages, arising from the breach committed by the plaintiff, whether they be liquidated or not. The law will cut off so much of the plaintiff's claim as the cross damages may come to." Cowen, J., 22 Wend. (N. Y.) 156. See "Recoupment." RECOUPMENT (Fr. reeouper, to cut again).

In practice. That right of the defendant, in the same action, to claim damages from the plaintiff, either because he has not complied with some cross obligation of the contract upon which he sues, or because he has violated some duty which the law imposed upon him in the making or performance of that contract. 4 Wend. (N. Y.) 483; 8 Wend. (N. Y.) 109; 10 Barb. (N. Y.) 55; 13 N. Y. 151; 3 Ind. 72, 265; 4 Ind. 533; 7 Ind. 200; 9 Ind. 470; 7 Ala. (N. S.) 753; 13 Ala. (N. S.) 587; 16 Ala. (N. S.) 221; 27 Ala. (N. S.) 574; 12 Ark. 699; 16 Ark. 97; 17 Ark. 270; 6 B. Mon. (Ky.) 528; 13 B. Mon. (Ky.) 239; 15 B. Mon. (Ky.) 454; 3 Mich. 281; 4 Mich. 619; 39 Me. 382; 16 111. 495; 11 Mo. 415; 18 Mo. 368; 25 Mo. 430. "Recoupment is distinguished from setoff in these three essential particulars: (1) In being confined to matters arising out of and connected with the transaction or contract on which suit is brought; (2) in having no regard to whether such matters are liquidated or unliquidated; (3) in not being the subject of statutory regulation, but controlled by the common law." 3 Mich. 281. Recoupment belongs to cases where the_ same contract lays mutual duties and obligations on two parties, and on an action by one for a breach of duty, the other presents a claim of breach of duty under the same contract. In set-off, the position or the whole of such debt is paid in reason and justice by a distinct unconnected debt which plaintiff owes him. 2 Pars. Cont. 740. This is not a new title in the law, although it seems recently to have assumed a new signification. Originally it implied a mere deduction from the claim of the plaintiff, on account of payment in whole or in part, or a former recovery, or some analogous fact. 3 Coke, 6S; 4 Coke, 94; 5 Coke, 2, 31; 11 Coke, 51, 52. See note to 6 Nev. & M. 467; Viner, Abr. "Discount," pi. 3, 4, 9, 10; 28 Vt. 413. This meaning has been retained in many modern cases, but under the name of "deduction" or "reduction of damages." 11 East, 232; 1 Maule & S. 318, 323; 5 Maule & S. 6, 10; 4 Bur-, rows, 2133. See "Set-Off."