Definition
Remitter is a common law doctrine of real property by which a person who holds both a valid prior title to land and a subsequent defective title to the same land is deemed, upon taking possession under the defective title, to hold instead under the earlier valid title. The law "remits" — sends back — the possessor to the stronger right, as though entry had been made under it from the beginning.
The doctrine operates by legal fiction. A person may be out of possession of land to which they have a valid underlying title (jus proprietatis) yet lack an immediate right of entry to reclaim it through self-help. If that same person later acquires possession through a second, defective title — one that would be vulnerable to challenge — the law does not leave them exposed on the weaker ground. Instead, it relates their possession back to the original, unimpeachable title. The defective title serves as the vehicle of entry; the prior valid title becomes the operative legal foundation.
The result is protective: it shields the possessor from attacks that would have succeeded against the defective title alone, and it preserves the integrity of the better right that already existed.
Note: In modern procedural usage, "remitter" also appears as a variant of "remittitur" in some older texts and jurisdictions — referring to the procedural act of a court sending a case back, or reducing an excessive jury verdict. These meanings are distinct. See COMMON CONFUSION below.
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Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): One who remits or makes remittance; one who pardons; also, the legal doctrine of sending a person back to a prior title.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): One who remits — specifically, one who pardons, one who makes remittance of money, and the legal doctrine of restitution to a prior valid title.
The everyday senses of "remitter" — a person who sends money, or one who grants pardon — bear no relation to the property doctrine. A researcher encountering the word in a commercial or financial context is reading about payment transmission, not title theory. The legal doctrine of remitter is a distinct, technical concept with no intuitive connection to either common meaning.
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Common Confusion
REMITTER vs. REMITTITUR: These terms are frequently conflated, particularly in older sources that use variant spellings inconsistently. Remittitur is the appellate and trial court procedure by which a court either (1) sends a case back to a lower tribunal, or (2) orders reduction of an excessive jury verdict as a condition of denying a new trial. Remitter, in its primary legal sense, is a real property doctrine involving the relation-back of title. The confusion is compounded because some historical texts use "remitter" loosely to describe a court's act of remanding — which is properly remittitur or remand. When researching either concept in pre-20th-century sources, verify which sense the author intends from context.
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Why It Matters in Research
Remitter is a doctrine of classical common law real property and is rarely encountered in modern transactional or litigation practice. Researchers are most likely to meet it in three contexts: (1) historical property disputes involving competing chains of title, particularly in jurisdictions with early land grant complexity; (2) treatise literature on common law seisin, right of entry, and possessory titles; and (3) as background doctrine in cases addressing the interplay between legal and equitable title.
The doctrine's practical importance diminished as common law real actions were abolished and title registration systems expanded. Modern land title insurance and recording acts largely displace the need to invoke relation-back fictions. However, in jurisdictions that preserve older common law property frameworks, or in disputes involving colonial-era or pre-registration titles, remitter may still surface as a theoretical basis for resolving competing claims.
Researchers using historical sources should be alert to terminological drift. "Remitter" in 19th-century reports sometimes describes any act of sending back — a court's remand of a case, the return of a matter to a lower tribunal — and only context reveals whether the property doctrine or a procedural act is meant. Burrill explicitly traces the term to the Latin remittere (to send back), which illuminates why the word migrated across these distinct legal uses.
The doctrine connects to broader concepts of seisin, jus proprietatis versus jus possessionis, and the old real actions (particularly the writ of right). Understanding remitter requires some familiarity with the classical distinction between the right to property and the right to possession — a distinction that modern property law has largely collapsed but which organized the entire common law of real actions for centuries.
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Historical Dictionary Support
The four source dictionaries are in close agreement on the core doctrine, tracking Blackstone's formulation almost verbatim. Black's (both editions) and Burrill define remitter as the relation back of a later defective title to an earlier valid title, and each articulates the same triggering scenario: a person holds the jus proprietatis but is out of possession, cannot enter without action, and then acquires possession through a defective subsequent title. Bouvier adds the equitable dimension explicitly — "the law remits him to his ancient and more certain right, and, by an equitable fiction, supposes him to have gained possession under it" — citing Blackstone's Commentaries directly.
Burrill is the most etymologically precise, noting the Latin remittere and framing the doctrine as "the sending back of a person to a title he had before." This formulation helpfully captures why the doctrine bears the name it does and why the word appears in other legal contexts with related but distinct meanings.
None of the historical dictionaries address the procedural sense of "remitter" as a variant of remittitur, which is a separate conceptual development. Researchers relying solely on these sources will find thorough treatment of the property doctrine but no guidance on navigating the terminological overlap with appellate procedure.
Webster's 1913 is notable for cataloguing both the common and legal meanings under a single entry, confirming that the word's dual life — money-sender and property doctrine — was well established by the late 19th century.
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Jurisdictional Note
Remitter as a property doctrine is a product of English common law and was received into American law generally. Its practical relevance varies by state depending on whether the jurisdiction abolished common law real actions by statute and the extent to which recording acts have displaced title relation-back analysis. Some states retain the doctrine in name while rarely applying it; others have effectively superseded it through comprehensive land title legislation.
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