Definition
A female relator. In legal practice, a relatrix is the feminine form of "relator" — a private person at whose instance or complaint a legal proceeding is brought, where the action is nominally conducted by the government or a public officer but is pursued on behalf of that individual. The relatrix is the actual party in interest behind the action, typically named in pleadings in the form "The State [or People, or Attorney General] ex rel. [Name]," with the relatrix's name appearing after the ex rel. designation.
The term arose from Latin legal drafting conventions that distinguished grammatical gender, and it appears most commonly in older equity and common law pleadings.
Common Confusion
Relatrix and relator are the same role; the distinction is solely grammatical gender. In modern practice, "relator" has become gender-neutral, and "relatrix" has largely disappeared from contemporary pleadings and court rules. Researchers encountering "relatrix" in historical documents should not treat it as a procedurally distinct category — it is simply a gendered label for the same procedural participant as a male relator.
Why It Matters in Research
The term is effectively archaic in modern American and English practice. Researchers will encounter it almost exclusively in pre-twentieth century reports and pleadings, particularly in quo warranto actions, mandamus proceedings, and suits brought by the attorney general on behalf of private complainants.
The principal research trap is assuming that "relatrix" signals a procedurally different type of proceeding from those involving a relator. It does not. The substantive rules governing the relatrix's role, her obligations, her liability for costs, and her relationship to the nominal plaintiff are identical to those governing a relator. Any doctrine you locate under "relator" applies equally.
The Burrill citation to 14 Peters' Reports (a volume of early U.S. Supreme Court reports) confirms the term was in use in federal practice in the antebellum period. Researchers working with nineteenth-century state court records — particularly in jurisdictions that retained formal Latin pleading conventions longer than others, such as those with strong common law traditions — should expect to encounter the term with some regularity through roughly the 1880s to 1900s.
When indexing or searching historical reporters and digests, note that some compilers indexed under "relator" without a separate "relatrix" entry, while others maintained separate entries. Cross-checking both headings is advisable when researching ex rel. cases involving female parties in older materials.
Historical Dictionary Support
The historical sources are in complete agreement on this term, reflecting its narrow and uncontested scope. Black's (both editions), Rapalje & Lawrence, and Burrill all define relatrix identically as "a female relator or petitioner," with no divergence in substance. Burrill alone provides a case citation (14 Peters' R. 500, 517), which is the sole documentary anchor offered across the shelf. None of the sources elaborates on procedure, rights, or obligations specific to the relatrix beyond the gendered identification — confirming that the term carried no independent legal freight beyond the grammatical distinction.
What the historical dictionaries collectively omit: any discussion of why gendered Latin forms were used in English-language pleadings, the practical contexts in which a relatrix most commonly appeared, or the transition period during which the feminine form fell out of use. Researchers needing that procedural context must look to contemporary treatises on pleading and practice rather than these definitions.
Jurisdictional Note
The term appears across both English and American historical sources without meaningful jurisdictional variation in its definition. Its disappearance from active use occurred gradually across common law jurisdictions as gender-neutral legal language became standard, with no single jurisdiction standing out as having retained or abandoned the form at a notably different time.