A contest over the election of a mayor is not a "cause," within Act 1877, c. 97, enlarging the jurisdiction of the chancery court of Tennessee. Baker v. Mitchell, 59 S. W. 137, 138, 105 Tenn. 610. While a scire facias to revive a judgment is merely a continuation of the original suit, a scire facias upon a recognizance or to annul a patent, or for any other similar purpose, is as much an original cause as an action for debt upon a recognizance or a bill of equity to annul a patent. United States v. Payne, 13 Sup. Ct. 442, 443, 147 U. S. 687, 37 L. Ed. 332. A "cause" is defined to be an action at law, a suit at law or in equity, a judicial proceeding. The filing of a transcript of a judgment of a justice is not a cause. State v. Gordon, 36 Pac. 498, 499, 8 Wash. 488. CAUSE IN LAW. The term "cause in law," as used in Const. 1870, art. 6, § 12, providing that the circuit courts shall have original jurisdiction of all causes in law and equity, should be construed to include an action in mandamus. People v. Board of Trade of City of Chicago, 62 N. E. 196, 193 Ill. 577. CAUSE OF ACTION. See "Good Cause of Action"; "New The primary right belonging to plaintiff, and the corresponding duty belonging to defendant, and the delict or wrong done by the defendant, consisting in a breach of such primary right or duty, constitute a cause of action. Pom. Rem. § 452. Stated in brief, a cause of action may be said to consist of the right belonging to the plaintiff, and some wrongful act or omission done by the defendant by which that right has been violated. Veeder v. Baker, 83 N. Y. 156, 160; Goodrich v. Alfred, 43 Atl. 1041, 1042, 72 Conn. 257; Harvey v. Parkersburg Ins. Co., 16 S. E. 580, 581, 37 W. Va. 272; Rodgers v. Mutual Endowment Assessment Ass'n, 17 S. C. 406, 410; Kennerty v. Etiwan Phosphate Co., Id. 411, 414, 43 Am. Rep. 607; Id., 21 S. C. 226, 234, 53 Am. Rep. 669; Drake v. Whaley, 35 S. C. 187, 190, 14 S. E. 397; Suber v. Chandler, 18 S. C. 526, 530; Mercantile Trust & Deposit Co. v. Roanoke & S. R. Co. (U. S.) 109 Fed. 3, 8; Davis V. State, 22 N. E. 9, 10, 119 Ind. 555; Baker v. State, 9 N. E. 711, 718, 109 Ind. 47; Wildman v. Wildman, 41 Atl. 1, 2, 70 Conn. 700; Howell v. Young, 5 Barn. & C. 259, 266; Jackson v. Spitall, L. R. 5 C. P. 542, 552; Clark v. Eddy, 10 Ohio Dec. 539, 544. as synonymous, the rules established with reference to one are sometimes supposed to be applicable to the other. This, however, is a mistaken view of the subject. Causes of action may be defined in general terms to be legal rights invaded without justification or sufficient excuse. Upon such invasion a cause of action arises which entitles the party injured to some relief, but the cause of action and the remedy sought are different matters. The one precedes, and, it is true, gives rise to, the other, but they are separate and distinct from each other, and are governed by different rules and principles.' Emory v. Hazard Powder Co., 22 S. C. 476, 481, 53 Am. Rep. 730. " A cause of action is that which produces or effects the result complained of. Noonan v. Pardee, 50 Atl. 255, 256, 200 Pa. 474, 55 L. R. A. 410, 86 Am. St. Rep. 722. "Cause of action" implies a right to bring an action, and some one who has a right to sue and some one who may lawfully be sued. Patterson v. Patterson, 59 N. Y. 574. 578, 17 Am. Rep. 384. A cause of action is that which produces the necessity for bringing action. A cause of action does not arise until there is a necessity for bringing the action. Shelby Steel Tube Co. v. Burgess Gun Co., 40 N. Y. Supp. 871, 873, 8 App. Div. 444. "Cause of action" is defined by Bouvier's Law Dictionary to be matter for which an action may be brought. A cause of action does not accrue until the existence of such a state of things as will enable a person having the proper relations to the property and persons concerned to bring an action. A cause of action is generally held to be a union of the right of plaintiff and its inColumbia fringement by the defendant. Bank v. Equitable Life Assur. Soc., 80 N. Y. Supp. 428, 434, 79 App. Div. 601. "The elements of a cause of action are: First, the breach of duty owing by one person to another; second, the damage resulting to the other from the breach." Post v. Campau, 3 N. W. 272, 275, 42 Mich. 90. The commission or omission of an act by the defendant, and damage to the plaintiff in consequence thereof, must unite to give a good cause of action. No one of these facts by itself is a cause of action. Fields v. Daisy Gold Min. Co., 73 Pac. 521, 522, 26 Utah, 373. "Causes of action are very often con- To constitute cause or right of action, founded with remedies, and, being regarded two elements must concur-a duty and a breach of it. There can be no actionable | of each of the several causes of action, unitwrong unless there is a duty resting upon a person, and he breaks it. If there is no duty, though the act of the defendant may work harm or damage, there is no right of action; it is a case of damnum absque injuria. Clarke v. Ohio River R. Co., 20 S. E. 696, 697, 39 W. Va. 732. The elements of a cause of action are: (1) A right possessed by the plaintiff; (2) an infringement of such right by the defendant. And it can make no difference that such infringement is accomplished partly by a direct and immediate .force, as that denominated "a false imprisonment," and partly by fraud or indirect force, as that denominated "a malicious prosecution"; for prosecutions for wrongs committed by direct force and those committed without direct force and merely by fraud or indirection are not necessarily kept separate. Atchison, T. & S. F. R. Co. v. Rice, 14 Pac. 229, 233, 36 Kan. 593. Cause of action consists not only of the right of the plaintiff, but of the wrong of the defendant; and in an action to recover property the right of the plaintiff consists in being entitled to the possession of the property which is owned by him, and the wrong of the defendant consists in withholding from the plaintiff that which is rightfully his. And hence a cause of action is not changed, the complaint in which alleged that the plaintiff was the owner of the land under written evidence of title, by an amendment setting up that plaintiff was the equitable owner of the land. McCandless v. Inland Acid Co., 42 S. E. 449, 451, 115 Ga. 968. ing and binding them together in one action. Thus, in an action by one tenant in common against another for ejectment, rents and profits, and partition, the subject of the action is the real property; the causes of the action are the infringment by defendant of plaintiff's rights in that property. Scarborough v. Smith, 18 Kan. 399, 406. A "cause of action," within Rev. St. art. 1194, subd. 25, providing that foreign corporations doing business in the state may be sued in any county where the cause of action arises, is made up of the contract and the breach of it. It takes these two parts, at least, to constitute the whole cause of action, within the meaning of the statute quoted. Westinghouse Electric Mfg. Co. v. Troell, 70 S. W. 324, 326, 30 Tex. Civ. App. 200. The phrase "cause of action," as used in statutes fixing the jurisdiction of courts according to where the cause of action arises, means that which creates the necessity for bringing the action. It arises when that is not done which ought to have been done, and that is done which ought not to have been done. Durham v. Spence, L. R. 6 Ex. Cas. 46; Hibernia Nat. Bank v. Lacombe, 84 N. Y. 367, 384, 38 Am. Rep. 518. The term "cause of action," as used in Rev. St. art. 1198, subd. 21, regarding venue. means "not only the right which the plaintiff has, but also the injury thereto. Thus, when there is a breach of contract which by its terms was to have been performed in any particular county, the cause of action arose there, and the defendant can be sued there." Houston & T. C. Ry. Co. v. Hill, 63 Tex. 381, 51 Am. Rep. 642. The cause of action in a supplemental proceeding, and in an action against a judgment debtor for fraudulently concealing, removing, and transferring his property to deThe expression "cause of action," as fraud and delay the judgment creditor in the used in Code Proc. N. Y. § 362, providing collection of the judgment, are the same. that the people will not sue for lands by reaThe right of the creditor was to have the son of right or title in them unless the money in the possession of the debtor applied cause of action accrued within 40 years bein satisfaction of the judgment. The duty fore the action is commenced, means that of the debtor was to apply that money, and at some time previous to the action the peohis wrong was in withholding it and refus-ple acquired the title, and that some person ing to apply it in payment of the judgment. has wrongfully withheld the possession from The judgment in the proceeding supplemental the people, and that such wrongful withholdto execution is a bar to the other action. Baker v. State, 9 N. E. 711, 718, 109 Ind. 47. In Jackson v. Spittall, L. R. 5 C. P. 552, "cause of action" is defined as the act on the part of the defendant which gives the plaintiff his cause of complaint. Matz v. Chicago & A. R. Co. (U. S.) 85 Fed. 180, 187. As used in the statute relating to uniting several causes of action in the same suit, the phrase "cause of action" relates to each transaction or class of transactions which form the foundation of the action. Of course, the subject of action is not the cause of action, or the cause of any action or any cause of action. It is simply one of the elements ing has not continued on the part of the present occupant, or his predecessors to whom he stands in privity of estate, for the period of 40 years before the action begun. Wright v. Phipps (U. S.) 90 Fed. 556, 575. Action and suit distinguished. As applicable to relief demanded. The cause of action refers entirely to the facts stated, and not the relief demanded; so that, if the facts stated in the complaint constitute a single cause of action, a prayer for various and inconsistent kinds of relief will not render the pleading demurrable on the ground of the misjoinder of causes of action. Colstrum v. Minneapolis & St. L. Ry. Co., 18 N. W. 94, 95, 31 Minn. 367. "Cause of action," as used in Code, 8 56, declaring that if a cause of action exist against a defendant, as well as other facts mentioned therein, the court may order a summons to be served by publication, includes an application by a judgment creditor to obtain leave of court to issue an execution on a judgment which has become dormant by lapse of time. Pursel v. Deal, 18 Pac. 461, 463, 16 Or. 295. As cause of one action. "Cause of action," as used in 9 & 10 Vict. c. 195, § 128, relating to cases of concurrent jurisdiction, meant cause of one action, and vere not to be limited to an action on one separate contract; and where a tradesman has a bill against a party for an amount due, in which the items are so connected together that 't appears that the dealing is not intended to erminate with one contract, but to be continuus, so that one item, if not paid, shall be united with another, and form one continuous demand, the whole together forms but one cause of action, and cannot be divided. Where the plaintiff, who was car rying on business within the jurisdiction of the county cout of A., sued defendant, who resided within he jurisdiction of the county court of B., fora bill, some of the items of which consisted of goods which had been ordered in the district, but delivered in the B. district, the whole formed one cause of action, within the meaning of the act. Bonsey v. Words orth, 18 C. B. 325, 334, (citing Grimbley Aykroyd, 1 Exch. 479, 3 Dowl. & L. 701; Wood v. Perry, 3 Exch. 442, 6 Dowl. & L. 34). As claim. See "Claim." As facts giving rigt of action. A cause of actionis the fact or combination of facts which įves rise to a right of action. Mason v. Unio1Pac. Ry. Co., 24 Pac. 796, 798, 7 Utah, 77; Fuil v. Northwestern Mut. Relief Ass'n, 39 N.W. 529, 530, 72 Wis. 430. "A cause of actic is said to accrue to any person when tha person first comes to a right to bring an actio." Bruil v. Northwestern Mut. Relief Ass'n39 N. W. 529, 530, 72 Wis. 430. A cause of tion is the existence of those facts which ge a party a right to judicial interference in h behalf. Billing v. Gilmer (U. S.) 60 Fed. 3, 334, 8 C. C. A. 645. The Century dictionar defines a cause of action to be the situation r state of facts which entitles a party to suain an action. Matz v. Chicago & A. R. Co.U. S.) 85 Fed. 180, 187. When used with referenc to the pleadings by which the cause of acon is alleged, the phrase signifies the facts upon which the plaintiff's right to sue is based, and upon which the defendant's duty has arisen, coupled with the facts which constitute the latter's wrong. Hutchinson v. Ainsworth, 15 Pac. 82, 84, 73 Cal. 452, 2 Am. St. Rep. 823; Phoenix Lumber Co. v. Houston Water Co., 61 S. W. 707, 708, 94 Tex. 456. A cause of action has been held to mean every fact which is material to be proved to entitle the plaintiff to succeed; "every fact which the defendant would have had right to traverse." It has also been held to mean, not the whole cause of action, but that which, in popular meaning, and for many purposes in legal meaning, is the cause of action, viz., the act on the part of the defendant which gives the plaintiff his cause of complaint. Williamson v. Chicago, R. I. & P. Ry. Co., 51 N. W. 60, 62, 84 Iowa, 583. The cause of the action is the fact or facts that justify it and show the right to maintain it; hence, when a material fact a petition, we say it does not state a cause necessary to the recovery is omitted from of action. The cause of action is the entire state of facts that give rise to an enforceable claim. The phrase comprises every fact which, if traversed, the plaintiff must prove B. Div. 128. There is a distinction between to obtain judgment. Read v. Brown, 22 Q. the term "cause of action" as used abstractly and as used in pleadings. In a general enforced. It is the right which a party has sense the term means a claim which may be while in pleadings it is the fact which gives to institute and carry through an action, rise to the action. It was contended that in an action for personal injury the cause of action was the injury wrongfully inflicted by the defendant through the negligence of the defendant-that is, that the cause of action was based on the defendant's negligence -but it was held that it was not such injury, but the fact or facts, that justify the action or show the right to maintain it; so that a complaint which alleged negligence in using defendant's system of bumpers in the coupling of its trains states a different cause of action from an amendment charging negligence in having the bumpers loose and out of repair. Box v. Chicago, R. I. & P. Ry. Co., 78 N. W. 694, 696, 107 Iowa, 660. A cause of action exists where the legal rights of one party have been invaded by another. Chalmers v. Glenn, 18 S. C. 469, 471. To allege a cause of action a person or persons must allege all the facts showing his right, and also those showing its invasion by the defendant; and the facts thus alleged must in law, on their face, on the one side entitle him to the right which I he claims, and on the other amount to an invasion by the defendant. Oliver v. Columbia, N. & L. R. Co., 33 S. E. 584, 585, 55 S. C. 541. As good cause of action. "If a person have a legal right to sue, he must necessarily have a 'good' (using that word, as it obviously is always used in this connection, in the sense of 'legally sufficient') cause of action. If he have no legal right to sue, he has not merely a bad cause of action, but no cause of action, so 'good cause of A cause of action is defined to be the right which a party has to institute and carry through a proceeding. Actions may be real, personal, or mixed. Hence Sayles' Civ. St. art. 3218, providing that in the case of the death of any person against whom there may be a cause of action limitations shall cease to run for 12 months, applies as well to real as to personal actions. Morgan v. Baker (Tex.) 40 S. W. 27, 29. Remedy distinguished. action' can mean no more than 'cause of action,' and the word 'good' in that connection is clearly superfluous." Hence an instruction that if plaintiff in good faith supposed he had a cause of action against the defendAn action is nothing less than the right ant on account of personal injuries, and or power to prosecute in a judicial proceedthreatened to sue the defendant on accounting what is owed to one, which is but to thereof, and defendant executed a note in consideration that the plaintiff would not sue him for such injuries, such compromise and settlement was a good consideration for such note, and was sufficient without using the word "good" before "cause of action." Parker v. Enslow, 102 Ill. 272, 276, 40 Am. Rep. 588. Judgment. See "Judgment." Proceedings in error. 2 Rev. St. p. 362 (2d Ed.) § 1, authorizing every poor person who shall have a cause of action against another to prosecute the same in forma pauperis, does not include a writ of error. Moore v. Cooley (N. Y.) 2 Hill, 412. say an obligation. The action therefore springs from an obligation, and hence the cause of action is simply the obligation. The cause of action is to be distinguished from a remedy, which is simply a means by which effectuated, and also from a relief sought. the obligation or the corresponding action is Frost v. Witter, 64 Pac. 705, 707, 132 Cal. 421, 84 Am. St. Rep. 53. As requiring person to sue or be sued. A cause of action is the right to prosecute an action with effect. No one has a complete cause of action until there is somebody that he can sue. Douglas v. Forrest, 4 Bing. 686, 704. A cause of action being the right to bring an action, it implies that there is some person in existence who can assert, and also a person who can be sued. Douglas v. Beasley, 40 Ala. 142, 147; Parker v. Enslow, 102 As right of action. A cause of action embraces the facts that entitle a party to relief in an original | Ill. 272, 276, 40 Am. Rep. 588. action-the facts ordinarily stated in а petition. The cause of an action does not embrace within its signification a proceeding in error. The latter usually grows out of the proceedings had in a cause of action, and is distinguished from it by the name adopt ed. Travelers' Ins. Co. v. Myers, 52 N. E. 831, 832, 59 Ohio St. 332 (citing Hobbs v. Beckwith, 6 Ohio St. 252; Bode v. Welch, 29 Ohio St. 19; Lafferty v. Shinn, 38 Ohio St. 46; O'Donnell v. Downing, 43 Ohio St. 62. 1 N. E. 438). Real actions included. "Cause of action," as used in Code Proc. § 33, giving to the superior court jurisdiction when the cause of action shall have arisen or the subject of the action shall be situated within the city of New York, refers to personal actions only, and not to those where the subject of the action was land in another state. Bennett v. Erving, 27 N. Y. Super. Ct. (4 Rob.) 671, 672. As used in the statute of limitations, 21, the term "cause of action" included actions concerning realty as well as personal actions, applying to all causes of action. Sutro Tunnel Co. v. Segregated Belcher Min. Co., 7 Pac. 271, 273, 19 Nev. 121. The term "cause of action" is defined as the right which a party has to institute and carry through a proceeding. It is a matter for which an action may be brought; the ground on which an action may be sustained. People v. Dodge, 38 Pac. 203, 204, 104 Cal. 487. action. The cause of action is a claim which A cause of action is a right to bring an may be enforced. It is the right which a party has to institute and carry through an action. The term "cause of action" is synonymous with the term "right of action." Lewis v. Hyams, 63 Pac. 126, 127, 26 Nev. 68. "A cause of action may be defined to be the right which a party has to institute and carry on, through an ordinary proceeding in a court of justice by one party against any other party for the enforcement or protection of a right; the redress or prevention of a wrong." Meyer v. Van Collem (N. Y.) 28 Barb. 230, 231; Douglas v. Beasley, 40 Ala. 142, 147; Davis v. State, 22 N. E. 9, 10, 119 Ind. 555; Morgan v. Baker (Tex.) 40 S. W. 27, 29. The unity of the right to be enforced or the wrong to be redressed constitutes the unity of the action. In an action to collect debts, the wrong is the detention and nonpayment of the debt. The ordinary action or proceeding for the collection of a debt ends with the judgment and execution. If in such an action the plaintiff seeks also to set aside a fraudulent judgment confessed by the defendant, and asks for a receiver and injunction, it does not follow that the complaint contains another cause of action, or more than one cause of action, because these remedies are asked for the purpose of collecting the same debt, or, in other words, as means to redress but one wrong and the same wrong. Meyer v. Van Collem (N. Y.) 28 Barb. 230, 231. "Cause of action is what gives rise to the remedial right, or the right of remedy, which is evidently the same as the term 'right of action,' frequently used by judges and text-writers. * The cause of action must always consist of two factors: First, the plaintiff's primary right and the defendant's corresponding primary duty, whatever be the subject to which they relate, person, character, property, or contract; and, second, the delict or wrongful act or omission of the defendant, by which the primary right and duty have been violated." Hayes v. Clinkscales, 9 S. C. (9 Rich.) 441, 453 (quoting Pom. Rem. & Rem. Rights, pp. 554, 555). The Missouri statute giving an action to the representatives of a person killed by means of the negligence of a common carrier creates a new cause of action, since at common law the persons designated in the statute did not have the right to sue on the situation or state of facts as used in the first definition, nor the right to bring an action for injury resulting in death under the subsequent definition. Matz v. Chicago & A. R. Co. (U. S.) 85 Fed. 180, 187. The right of the state, created by statate, to recover for a wrong done, and the wrong committed, constitute the very essence of a cause of action which survives against the personal representative of the wrongdoer. Davis v. State, 22 N. E. 9, 10, 119 Ind. 555. der this provision, leave to prosecute first obtained was a condition precedent to the right of action on the judgment, which leave must therefore be alleged, or the complaint fails to show a "cause of action" which term is synonymous with "right of action," and "right of recovery"; and a complaint which does not show right of recovery fails to show a cause of action. Graham v. Scripture (N. Y.) 26 How. Prac. 501, 507. As subject-matter. In applying the rule that in order that a judgment in a former action may be a bar to a recovery in another action the cause of the action in the two cases should be the same, care must be taken to distinguish between the identity of the subjectmatter of litigation and identity of the cause of action. The subject-matter in litigation may be the same, and yet the cause of action entirely different. Therefore, there is a well-settled rule of law on the subject of res adjudicata, that a former adjudication never affects after-acquired rights. State of Wisconsin v. Torinus, 9 N. W. 725, 727, 28 Minn. 175. A cause of action is the subject-matter of the controversy, and is for all the purposes of the suit, whatever the plaintiff declares it to be in his pleadings. Pirie v. Tvedt, 5 Sup. Ct. 1034, 1035, 115 U. S. 41, 29 L. Ed. 331. See, also, Borst v. Corey, 15 N. Y. 505, 509. Subject of action distinguished. Cause of action for tort. The term "cause of action" includes suits for slander. Jack v. Shoemaker (Pa.) 3 Bin. 280, 284. Rev. Code, c. 104, § 19, provides that a writ of foreign attachment may be issued against a nonresident 10 days after a return of a summons showing that he cannot be found, and proof satisfactory to the court of the cause of action; or upon affidavit that defendant resides out of the state, and is justly indebted to plaintiff. Held, that the phrase "cause of action" does not embrace a cause of action for tort. Smith v. Armour (Del.) 40 Atl. 720, 721, 1 Pennewill, 361. A "cause of action," in the sense used in relation to the venue of an action, is synonymous with "right of action," and includes the act without which no right of recovery | CAUSE OF ACTION could exist. When a thing is done which ought not to have been done, or when a thing is not done which ought to have been done, a cause of action arises. Bach v. Brown, 53 Pac. 991, 992, 17 Utah, 435. Code Proc. § 71, declares that no action shall be brought on a judgment rendered in any court in the state, except a court of a justice of the peace, between the same parties, without leave of the court, for good cause shown, on notice, etc. Held that, un2 WDS. & P.-2 VIVES. WHICH SUR The clause, "the cause of action which survives," as used in Pub. St. c. 165, § 12, providing that, when there are several plaintiffs or defendants in an action, the cause of which survives, and one of them dies before final judgment, the action shall proceed, means survives to the surviving plaintiffs or against the surviving defendants Brown v. Kellogg, 65 N. E. 378, 182 Mass. 297. |