Also known as: ius agendi · iure agendi · right to act · right of action
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A legal right to institute and maintain a judicial proceeding for enforcement of a claim or redress of a wrong. The existence and scope of the right depend on the statute or rule creating it.
After Jamal Jefferson dies from injuries sustained in a workplace accident, his widow Jada Jones brings suit against the equipment manufacturer. The court measures her recoverable damages solely by the wording of the state wrongful death statute and its judicial interpretation rather than by any uniform common-law formula.
A former White House aide sues the ex-President for alleged retaliatory discharge. The court first determines whether the aide possesses a viable right of action before addressing any immunity defense that might bar the suit.
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After a car accident in State A, the injured plaintiff files suit in State B. The defendant moves to transfer venue, forcing the court to decide whether the plaintiff holds a right of action that can be litigated in the transferee forum.
A neighborhood association challenges a zoning decision that affects nearby property values. The court examines whether the association has a right of action sufficient to satisfy constitutional standing requirements.
A hunter pursues a fox across open land and another person intercepts and kills it. The first hunter sues, requiring the court to decide whether pursuit alone creates a right of action for conversion of the animal.
A union sues an employer for breach of a collective-bargaining agreement. The court determines whether federal law supplies the union with a right of action to enforce the contract terms in federal court.
The measure of damages depends on the wording of the statute that creates the right of action and the way courts interpret that statute.
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Courts may still adopt the standard of conduct from the statute or regulation as the measure of reasonable care in a negligence action even if the provision itself supplies no private right of action.
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A spouse may recover for loss of society and services caused by tortious injury to the other spouse, but the claim must ordinarily be joined with the injured spouse's personal-injury action unless joinder is impossible.
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A transferor who remains personally liable on the mortgage debt obtains a direct right of action to compel the transferee to perform the assumed obligation, enforceable either as a contract claim or as exoneration under suretyship principles.
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…minister who was a delegate to the Massachusetts ratifying convention of 1788, declared that " every person has an unalienable right to act in all religious affairs according to the full persuasion of his own mind, where others are not injured thereby.' " Backus, A Declaration of Rights, of the Inhabitants of the State of…