Definition
The usee is the person for whose benefit a lawsuit is formally brought, where that person cannot sue directly in their own name and must instead proceed through a nominal plaintiff. The usee holds the real interest in the litigation; the named plaintiff appears on the record as a legal formality while the usee is the actual party in interest. Also called the "use-plaintiff."
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): One who or that which is used.
Historical common usage: Not recorded as a common English word in Webster's 1913.
The common-language sense — a passive object being used — is almost the inverse of the legal meaning. The legal usee is not passive; they are the driving party in interest behind litigation, the person whose rights are being vindicated. The term's suffix (-ee) misleadingly suggests the recipient of an action rather than its beneficiary.
Common Confusion
USEE vs. USE-PLAINTIFF: These are the same concept. "Use-plaintiff" is the more descriptive compound term; "usee" is the shortened form. Both appear in historical sources, and researchers should treat them as synonyms.
USEE vs. NOMINAL PLAINTIFF: The nominal plaintiff is the person whose name appears on the record — often because legal title or procedural rules require it. The usee is the person whose benefit the suit actually serves. The nominal plaintiff and the usee are distinct parties, though they appear together in the same action, typically styled as "A, for the use of B" or "A ex rel. B."
Why It Matters in Research
The usee appears almost exclusively in older American practice and in a geographically limited set of jurisdictions. Burrill notes it as a term used in "some of the Southern states," with the Mississippi Reports as a supporting reference. Researchers working in antebellum Southern court records, particularly Mississippi, will encounter this term in case captions and procedural pleadings. It will be largely absent from contemporary practice.
The underlying procedural need for a usee arose from the common-law rule that certain parties — assignees of choses in action, for example — lacked standing to sue in their own name and were required to bring suit in the name of the original obligee "for the use of" the real party in interest. When modern procedure (including the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and analogous state reforms) abolished the requirement that suit be brought in the name of the original party, the procedural occasion for naming a usee largely disappeared.
Corpus researchers should watch for the "for the use of" construction in historical case captions. The party named after "for the use of" is the usee. The substantive rights being litigated belong to the usee, not the nominal plaintiff. Misreading the caption will produce an incorrect identification of who actually won or lost the case.
Historical Dictionary Support
All three source dictionaries agree on the core definition without variation: the usee is the person for whose use a suit is brought. Black's (both editions) adds the synonymous term "use-plaintiff," which is a useful cross-reference. Burrill contributes the most jurisdictional specificity, flagging the term as particular to some Southern states and anchoring it to Mississippi Reports — the only source among the three to provide any geographic or case-level grounding.
None of the historical dictionaries explain the procedural mechanism that made the usee necessary, the decline of the concept under reformed pleading, or the relationship to the broader doctrine of uses in equity. Researchers relying solely on these entries will understand what a usee is called but not why the institution existed or why it disappeared. The fuller context requires understanding the common-law rules governing assignment of choses in action and the eventual adoption of real-party-in-interest requirements.
Jurisdictional Note
The usee concept reflects a procedural practice that was more persistent in some Southern states than elsewhere. Mississippi case law is the specific reference point in Burrill. Researchers working in other jurisdictions should not assume the term will appear with the same frequency or in the same procedural posture.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
See USE (for the underlying doctrine of uses and the "for the use of" pleading convention)