Restitutio

A remedy in the civil law corresponding quite closely to in integrum, the meaning being that the parties were restored to the unbroken position which they formerly held. The remedy by restitutio was granted only in oases where the contract or transaction was apparently valid or obligatory; for, if it could not be enforced, the complainant had no need of relief against it, where it was operating to cause complainant some pecuniary loss or injury, and where the complainant was not himself legally in fault. These conditions existing, restitutio might be ordered on either of the following grounds: Force or fear. One who had acted under the influence of force or reasonable fear, caused by the acts of another party, had an actio quod metus causa, for restitution, against the wrong-doer; and also against a third person in possession of what was illegally obtained from complainant; and also against the heir of the wrong-doer. Fraud. One who had been fraudulently induced to become a party to a transaction which was legal in all respects, saving the fraud, had an actio de dolo malo against the guilty person and his heredes, so far as they were made richer by the fraud, for the restoration of the thing of which he had been defrauded, and, if that were not possible, for compensation. But against a third party, who was in bona fide possession of the thing, he had no action. Infancy. In certain cases, one injured by a transaction affecting his estate, done with assent of his tutor or curator, while he was under the age of twenty-five years, might maintain an action for restitutio. Absence, which included some mental and civil incapacities, arid error or mistake, were grounds on which, in a proper case, restitutio might be decreed. Consult Call'. Lex.; Heinecc. JElem. Jur. Civ. lib. i, tit. 6, § 1150; Wharton.

A Law Dictionary and Glossary

Dictionary of Terms and Phrases Used in American or English Jurisprudence