Definition
Struck off has two distinct legal uses:
1. PROCEDURAL REMOVAL FROM THE RECORD. A case is "struck off" when a court, lacking jurisdiction or otherwise unable to render judgment, orders the matter removed from its docket. The removal is accomplished by a formal entry in the record to that effect. The practical consequence is that the case ceases to pend before that court — not because it was decided on the merits, but because the court could not properly hear it.
2. AUCTION SALES. In the context of sales by auction, "struck off" (or "knocked down") refers to the moment at which a bid is accepted and the sale is concluded. The auctioneer's act of knocking down the hammer signals that the item has been struck off to the highest bidder, completing the contract of sale at that price. Bouvier's directs readers from "struck off" to "knocked down" for this usage, treating the two as equivalents in the auction context.
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Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): Simple past and past participle of "strike off" — to remove from a list or register, or to cross out.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Not available in source material.
The ordinary English sense of "striking off" — removing from a list — partially overlaps with the legal meaning but can mislead. In common usage, being struck off a list is a permanent administrative act (such as a professional being removed from a licensing register). In procedural law, a case struck off the record is removed for want of jurisdiction, not disciplined or decided; the underlying claim may survive and be pursued elsewhere. In auction law, the phrase signals completion, not removal — essentially the opposite of the common meaning.
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Common Confusion
Two separate legal meanings travel under the same label and should not be conflated:
— Struck off (procedural) means removal from the court's docket without a merits determination. It is not a dismissal with prejudice, not a judgment, and not an adjudication. Researchers treating it as equivalent to a final judgment will misread case records.
— Struck off (auction) means the opposite of removal — it marks the moment of consummation of a sale. Confusion between the two can arise when reading older reports that use the phrase without context.
Additionally, "struck off" in the professional-regulation sense — used in some Commonwealth jurisdictions to describe removal of a solicitor or other professional from the roll — is a distinct usage not addressed by Bouvier and largely absent from American legal dictionaries. Researchers in comparative or Commonwealth law should not assume the procedural or auction meanings govern.
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Why It Matters in Research
The primary research trap is treating a case "struck off" as equivalent to a dismissed or finally decided case. Because the removal is for lack of jurisdiction rather than a ruling on the merits, the parties' rights are not necessarily extinguished. A researcher surveying litigation history who encounters this notation in older docket records should investigate whether the matter was subsequently refiled in a court of competent jurisdiction.
The auction meaning matters in historical real property and commercial research. Records of sheriff's sales, foreclosure auctions, and probate sales frequently use "struck off" interchangeably with "knocked down" to denote the final acceptance of a bid. In those contexts, the phrase marks the operative moment of contract formation under auction rules — relevant when disputes arise over whether a sale was validly concluded.
Bouvier's cross-reference from "struck off" to "knocked down" signals that the auction sense was considered the more elaborately treated usage. Researchers needing the auction doctrine should follow that reference within Bouvier's rather than relying on the brief entry under this term.
The phrase appears infrequently in modern American practice under this exact label. Contemporary procedural rules tend to use "stricken," "dismissed without prejudice," or "removed from the docket." In older state court records — particularly nineteenth and early twentieth century — "struck off" is more common and requires careful reading to determine which of the two meanings applies.
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Historical Dictionary Support
Bouvier's Law Dictionary provides both meanings in compact form and directs readers to the "knocked down" entry for the auction usage. The entry is brief and primarily definitional, offering little doctrinal elaboration. No competing historical dictionary entry is available in the source material for comparison.
What Bouvier's does not address: the professional-regulation meaning common in English and Commonwealth practice (striking a solicitor off the rolls), which reflects a distinct administrative and disciplinary usage with no close American analog in Bouvier's era. Researchers using this dictionary to understand English law reports will find the entry insufficient.
Bouvier's framing — that the court "has no jurisdiction over" the matter and "is not able to give judgment" — usefully distinguishes struck off from other forms of removal. The entry implies a non-merits disposition, which is the critical point for downstream research.
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Jurisdictional Note
The procedural usage is largely historical in American courts. Modern federal practice uses different terminology; the phrase "struck off" in this sense appears more frequently in older state court records and equity proceedings. The auction usage remains relevant wherever common-law auction rules govern sales, though modern statutory frameworks for foreclosure and execution sales may use different language.
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