APPELLANT - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

APPELLANTAuthored

The Law Mind • 785 words

Definition

Appellant is the party who takes an appeal from a lower court's judgment or order to a higher court. The appellant is dissatisfied with the lower court's decision and seeks its review, modification, or reversal. The party on the other side of the appeal — defending the lower court's ruling — is the appellee or respondent.

The term is procedural and status-based: it describes a party's role in appellate proceedings, not their original position at trial. A defendant who loses at trial and appeals becomes the appellant; a plaintiff who loses and appeals is equally the appellant. Original party alignment does not determine appellate designation.

Common Confusion

APPELLANT VS. PETITIONER
In courts that use certiorari or discretionary review, the party seeking review may be called the petitioner rather than the appellant. The functional role is the same — the party challenging the lower court's decision — but the label varies by court and by the type of review sought. Some courts use petitioner/respondent uniformly at the appellate level regardless of the procedural posture below. Researchers working with federal circuit courts will encounter appellant/appellee; researchers working with U.S. Supreme Court practice will more often encounter petitioner/respondent.

Why It Matters in Research

Appellant is a procedural status term, and its significance in research is almost entirely navigational and contextual rather than doctrinal.

In reading historical cases, tracking who is the appellant matters because appellate opinions often address only the errors the appellant raised. Arguments not raised by the appellant are typically waived or forfeited — so the scope of what a case actually decided turns on what the appellant assigned as error. Historical opinions sometimes identify parties only by their appellate designation, not their trial-level names, which can require cross-referencing lower court records to reconstruct the full story.

In the Law Mind corpus, the encyclopedia entry on remand under 28 USC 1447 is directly relevant: appellate review of remand orders is one of the more procedurally intricate areas where appellant status interacts with jurisdictional rules. Not all remand orders are reviewable on appeal, and the identity of who is appealing — and from what — shapes whether appellate jurisdiction attaches at all. Researchers tracing removal and remand issues should treat that encyclopedia entry as a companion resource.

The term also appears in court rules governing filing deadlines, brief formatting, and the ordering of argument. In those procedural contexts, knowing who bears the appellant designation determines who files first, who has the burden of demonstrating error, and in what order oral argument proceeds.

Jurisdictional labeling variation is a live trap. Pre-twentieth-century equity practice used appellant/respondent; common law practice at the appellate level sometimes used plaintiff-in-error/defendant-in-error. Federal practice consolidated around appellant/appellee for appeals of right and petitioner/respondent for certiorari. A researcher indexing historical appellate records should not assume consistent terminology across time or across court systems.

Historical Dictionary Support

The four shelf sources are in close agreement on the core definition, with minor differences in framing.

Black's Law Dictionary defines appellant simply as "the party who takes an appeal from one court or jurisdiction to another." Bouvier's matches this almost exactly: "he who makes an appeal from one jurisdiction to another." Both treat the definition as self-evident and elemental — a single sentence suffices.

Burrill's adds the most procedural texture of the four, noting that the appellant is "one who appeals; the party to an action by whom an appeal is made or taken" and distinguishing the appellant from the respondent and appellee as the "opposite party." Burrill cites Cowell and Tomlins, situating the term in standard English legal dictionary tradition.

Rapalje & Lawrence is the most specific about the trial-court grounding: the appellant is "the party to an action who takes an appeal from a judgment or order, to a higher court." The explicit mention of "judgment or order" is useful — it signals that appeals could be taken not only from final judgments but from interlocutory orders in appropriate circumstances, a distinction that has grown considerably in modern appellate practice.

None of the historical sources address the petitioner/respondent naming convention that dominates discretionary review, the plaintiff-in-error terminology of older writ-of-error practice, or the appellate alignment complications that arise when multiple parties appeal or when a party cross-appeals. These are gaps the historical dictionaries could not anticipate, and researchers working with modern appellate doctrine should supplement accordingly.

APPELLANTmain

Black's Law Dictionary • 1891

The party who takes an appeal from one court or jurisdiction to an- other.

APPELLANTmain

Bouvier's Law Dictionary • 1928

In Practice. He who makes an appeal from one jurisdic- tion to another.

APPELLANTmain

Rapalje & Lawrence • 1888

The party to an action who takes an appeal from a judgment or order, to a higher court. The party against whom the appeal is taken is called the "appellee" or "respondent." another: "appendant is any inheritance belonging to another that is more superior or worthy." (Co. Litt. 121 b, where an instance is given of a thing corporeal be ing appendant to a thing incorporeal, namely, lands appendant to an office.) And the difference between appendant and appurtenant is merely one of name, appendant being applied to some things and appurtenant to others. Historically. the difference seems to be that rights which were originally created by implication of law and annexed to estates in land are properly called appendant, and all others appurtenant. Thus, common appendant is the right which socage tenants of a manor have by the common law to feed their beasts on the wastes of the manor, while common appurtenant is a right gained from the lord by grant or prescription. (Burton Comp. R. P. 2 1133; Elt. Com. 14, 47, 88.) So, an advowson or seignory is said to be appendant to a manor (Wms. Real Prop. 322), because it is created and annexed to the manor by implication of law. Ultimately, no doubt, APPELLATE JURISDICTION.- the origin of common appendant and simiJurisdiction on appeal; power or jurisdic-lar rights may be traced back to the old tion to rehear a cause already tried in an vills or village communities. (Wms.Com. inferior court, either on appeal, certiorari 39.) A corporeal hereditament cannot be appendant to another corporeal hereditaAPPELLATE JURISDICTION, (defined), 1 ment, nor an incorporeal to an incorpoCranch (U.S.) 175. real. See APPURTENANT; REGARDANT; IN APPELLATE.-Pertaining to, or having cognizance of appeals, and other proceedings for the judicial review of adjudications. APPELLATE COURT.-A court of appeal; a court to which causes are removable by appeal, certiorari or error. or writ of error. 50 Cal. 211. (distinguished from "supervisory"). GROSS. APPELLATIO.-An appeal, or removal of a cause from an inferior to a superior tribunal or judge. APPELLATOR.-An old law term having the same meaning as "appellant" (q. v.) APPELLEE.--The party against whom an appeal is taken; the party opposing or answering to the appeal, and defending the judgment appealed from. Often termed "respondent" (q. v.) APPELLOR.-In old English law, a criminal who accuses his accomplices; or who challenges a jury. APPENDAGE, (of a railroad, what is). 4 Dutch. (N. J.) 26. APPENDANT.-LATIN: ad, to, and dere, to hang. pen APPENDANT, (defined). 1 Chit. Gen. Pr. 153; 1 Com. Dig. 651, 652; Co. Litt. 121 b; 8 Barn. & C. 150; 7 Mass. 6. (in a declaration). Yelv. 159. (in a lease). 6 Bing. 150. (to a rectory). 1 Ld. Raym. 199. APPENDANTS; APPURTENANCES, (distinguished). 1 Johns. (N. Y.) Cas. 291.

APPELLANTa.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

Relating to an appeal; appellate. "An appellant jurisdiction." Hallam. Party appellant (Law), the party who appeals; appellant; -- opposed to respondent, or appellee. Tomlins.

APPELLANTn.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

One who accuses another of felony or treason. [Obs.] One who appeals, or asks for a rehearing or review of a cause by a higher tribunal. A challenger. [Obs.] Milton. One who appealed to a general council against the bull Unigenitus. One who appeals or entreats.

appellantadj

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

Wiktionary contributors • CC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
Extracted and formatted for display by Law Mind. Source link opens the current Wiktionary page and its contributor history; it is not a frozen copy of this extract.

of or relating to appeals; appellate | in the process of appealing

appellantnoun

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

a litigant or party that is making an appeal in court | One who makes an earnest entreaty of any kind. | One who challenges another to single combat. | One of the clergy in the Jansenist controversy who rejected the bull Unigenitus issued in 1713, appealing to a pope "better informed", or to a general council.

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