Definition
Right in action is an older legal phrase used interchangeably with chose in action. It denotes a personal right to something that cannot presently be enjoyed or enforced except through a lawsuit or other legal proceeding — as distinguished from a right accompanied by immediate possession. The term encompasses the full range of intangible legal claims capable of being reduced to possession only by judicial action: unpaid debts, contract claims, rights to recover damages, and similar enforceable but not yet realized interests.
Because the term is essentially an anglicization of chose in action (itself derived from the French), right in action carries no independent legal content. All doctrine, interpretation, and analysis applicable to chose in action applies equally here. See CHOSE IN ACTION.
---
Common Confusion
Right in action is frequently confused with right of action. These are distinct concepts. A right in action is the intangible property interest itself — the claim or chose. A right of action is the procedural capacity to enforce that claim in court, which may arise, be waived, be time-barred, or be assigned independently of the underlying interest. A party may hold a right in action but have lost the right of action to enforce it (for example, through expiration of the statute of limitations). Researchers encountering either phrase in historical sources should confirm which concept the author intended, as the terms were not always used with precision.
---
Why It Matters in Research
The principal research value of this entry is navigational: right in action is an alternate surface form for chose in action, and historical sources — including pleadings, treatises, and judicial opinions — use both phrases without consistent preference. A corpus search limited to one form will miss a significant share of relevant materials.
The phrase right in action appears more commonly in older American sources and in lay-adjacent legal writing, while chose in action dominates in English common law texts and equity treatises. Researchers working in nineteenth-century American materials, particularly on property transfer, bankruptcy, or assignment doctrine, should run parallel searches on both terms.
Historical sources also vary in whether they treat rights in action as assignable. Early common law was hostile to assignment of choses in action on policy grounds (fear of maintenance and champerty); equity eroded that restriction significantly, and American jurisdictions largely completed the erosion by statute. A source that discusses limitations on the transfer of rights in action may be addressing this historical assignability problem rather than any permanent doctrine.
One further trap: right in action sometimes appears in older conveyancing materials in the context of warranty covenants and title chains, where it signals a grantor's reserved claim rather than an intangible personal right in the modern sense. Context is essential.
---
Historical Dictionary Support
Both editions of Black's Law Dictionary treat right in action as having precisely the meaning of chose in action, with no independent doctrinal gloss. The entries are brief — essentially a redirect — which accurately reflects the term's status as a variant phrase rather than a freestanding legal concept.
Neither edition addresses the assignability history, the confusion with right of action, or the term's particular prevalence in American versus English sources. Researchers should not expect guidance on those distinctions from the dictionary entries themselves.
---
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
The Law Mind Business Organizations & Corporate Law Encyclopedia: Federal Securities — Securities Litigation — Private Rights of Action and Class Actions [business_107] (for the related but distinct concept of a private right of action as a judicially or statutorily implied enforcement remedy)
The Law Mind Remedies & Equity Encyclopedia: Mandamus — Compelling Government Action, Clear Right, and Ministerial vs. Discretionary Acts [remedies_47] (for the related concept of a clear legal right as a precondition to equitable relief)
---