DEBT, ACTION OF
One of the oldest common-law FORMS OF ACTION available to private litigants seeking to collect what is owed to them because of a harm done to them by another.
Originally, the action was allowed for any plaintiff who claimed an obligation owed by
another person, but the courts gradually began
to recognize two forms of action: DETINUE,an
action to collect a specific item of property, and
a debt for a sum of money. The distinction had
become clear in England by the early thirteenth
century. In debt, as in detinue, a defendant who
lost the case had the option of either paying a
sum of money for the judgment or giving back
the property that gave rise to the debt. Later in
the thirteenth century, courts began to permit
REPLEVIN, an action for the return of goods
wrongfully taken or withheld, and COVENANT,
an action for damages from someone who broke
an agreement. Gradually, judges began to
demand firm proof of the agreement, and finally
they would accept nothing less than a contract
made under seal. Later the action in ASSUMPSIT
enlarged the rights of a disappointed party to a
contract by allowing monetary damages for any
breach. This action enjoyed growing popularity
and supplanted the action of debt for a time
because it permitted the defendant to prove his
or her case by swearing in open court and by
bringing along eleven neighbors who would
proclaim their belief in their neighbor’s truth-
fulness. When this procedure, called the WAGER
OF LAW, was abolished during the reign of King
William IV (1830–1837), the action of debt
again became important as an action to enforce
a simple contract.
As long as common-law forms of action were the required modes for PLEADING civil actions, the action of debt continued to be useful. Relief was available only for those whose claims fit exactly into its form, however, and there was criticism of its rigidity and technicalities. By the end of the nineteenth century most states had passed laws to replace the old forms of action with CODE PLEADING. Today, the law of CIVIL PROCEDURE recognizes only one form for a lawsuit, the civil action. An individual can still sue to collect what is due on a debt, but no longer is it necessary to draw the complaint in the form of the ancient action of debt.
