Cause Of Action - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition cause-of-action

Definition :

Cause of action, a cause of action is a bundle of facts which are required to be pleaded and proved for the purpose of obtaining relief claimed in the suit. For the aforementioned purpose, the material facts are required to be stated but not the evidence except in certain cases where the pleading relied on any misrepresentation, fraud, breach of trust, wilful default or undue influence, Liverpool & London S.P. & I Assocn. v. M.V. Sea Success, (2004) 9 SCC 512 (562). [Civil Procedure Code, 1908, O. 7, R. 11(9)]

--It is only that court in whose jurisdiction the 'cause of action' did arise will have Jurisdiction to entertain an application either under section 9 or under section 11 of the Act (Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996); Indian Iron and Steel Company Ltd. Kolkata v. Tiwari Roadlines, Hyderabad, AIR 2006 AP 1.

Means every fact which it is necessary to establish to support a right to obtain a judgment, Prem Chand Vijay Kumar v. Yashpal Singh, (2005) 4 SCC 417.

Is a bundle of facts which are required to proof for obtaining to relief, Mayor (H.K.) Ltd. v. Owners and Parties Vessel N.B. Fortune Express, (2006) 3 SCC 100.

Right to sue. All the facts which are necessary to establish the plaintiff's right to the remedy which he claims. As to joinder of causes of action, see that title.

Is simply as factual situation the existence of which entitles one person to obtain from the court a remedy against another person, Herb v. King Fahd Bin Abdul Aziz, (2006) 1 WLR 578 (CA).

Means the 'cause of action for which the suit was brought'. It cannot be said that the cause of action on which the present suit was brought is the same as that in the previous suit. Cause of action is a cause of action which gives occasion for and forms the foundation of the suit. If that cause of action enables a person to ask for a larger and wider relief than to which he limits his claim, he cannot afterwards seek to recover the balance by independent proceedings, Sidramappa v. Rajashetty, (1970) 3 SCR 319: AIR 1970 SC 1059: (1970) 1 SCC 186.

The expression 'cause of action' with regard to a civil matter means that it should be left to the litigant to institute cases at Lucknow Bench or at Allahabad Bench according to the cause of action arising wholly or in part within either of the areas. If the cause of action arises wholly within Oudh areas then the Lucknow Bench will have jurisdiction. Similarly, if the cause of action arises wholly outside the specified areas in Oudh then Allahabad will have jurisdiction. If the cause of action in part arises in the specified Oudh areas and part of the cause of action arises outside the specified areas, it will be open to the litigant to frame the case appropriately to attract the jurisdiction either at Lucknow or at Allahabad, Nasiruddin v. State Transport Appellate Tribunal, (1976) 1 SCR 505: (1975) 2 SCC 671: AIR 1976 SC 331.

A cause of action means every fact, which if traversed, it would be necessary for the plaintiff to prove in order to support his right to a judgment of the Court. In other words, it is a bundle of facts which taken with the law applicable to them gives the plaintiff a right to relief against the defendant. It must include some act done by the defendant since in the absence of such an act no cause of action can possibly accrue. It is not limited to the actual infringement of the right sued on but includes all the material facts on which it is founded. It does not comprise evidence necessary to prove such facts, but every fact necessary for the plaintiff to prove to enable him to obtain a decree. Everything which if not proved would give the defendant a right to immediate judgment must be part of the cause of action. But it has no relation whatever to the defence which may be set up by the defendant nor does it depend upon the character of the relief prayed for by the plaintiff, A.B.C. Laminart (P) Ltd. v. A.P. Agencies, Salem, (1989) 2 SCC 163: AIR 1989 SC 1239.

Means the circumstances forming the infraction of the right or the immediate occasion for the action, Kunjan Nair Sivaraman Nair v. Narayanan Nair, (2004) 3 SCC 277.

The expression 'cause of action' has sometimes been employed to convey the restricted idea of facts or circumstances which constitute either the infringement or the basis of a right and no more. In a wider and more comprehensive sense, it has been used to denote the whole bundle of material facts which a plaintiff must prove in order to succeed, Gurdit Singh v. Munsha Singh, (1977) 2 SCR 250: AIR 1977 SC 640 (654): (1977) 1 SCC 791. (Punjab Limitation (Customs) Act (1 of 1920) s. 5, Sch. Art. 2)

The expression 'cause of action' has been compendiously defined to mean every fact which it would be necessary for the plaintiff to prove, if traversed in order to support his right to the judgment of Court, Hari Shankar Jain v. Sonia Gandhi, (2001) 8 SCC 233.

The expression 'cause of action' is tersely defined in Mulla's Code of Civil Procedure: The 'cause of action' means every fact which, if traversed, it would be necessary for the plaintiff to prove in order to support his right to a judgment of the court. In other words, it is a bundle of facts which taken with the law applicable to them gives the plaintiff a right to relief against the defendant, State of Rajasthan v. Swaika Properties, (1985) 3 SCC 217: (1985) 3 SCR 598: AIR 1985 SC 1289 (1292).

By 'cause of action' it is meant every fact, which, if traversed, it would be necessary for the plaintiff to prove in order to support his right to a judgment of the Court, Cooke v. Gill, 1873 LR CP 107: 42 LJ CP 98. In other words, a bundle of facts which it is necessary for the plaintiff to prove in order to succeed in the suit, Bloom Dekor Ltd. v. Subhash Himatlal Desai, (1994) 6 SCC 322 (328). (Civil P.C., 1908, s. 20)

The expression 'cause of action' does not mean 'every fact which it is material to be proved to entitle the plaintiff to succeed' as was said in Cooke a Gill (1873 LR CP 107: 42 LJ CP 98) in a different context, for if it were so, no material fact could ever be amended or added and, of course, no one would want to change or add an immaterial allegation by amendment. That expression for the present purpose only means, a new claim made on a new basis constituted by new facts. Such a view was taken in Robinson v. Unicos Property Corporation Ltd., (1962) 2 ALL ER 24: (1962) 1 WLR 520 and it seems to be the only possible view to take. Any other view would make the rule futile, A.K. Gupta and Sons Ltd. v. Damodar Valley Corpn., AIR 1967 SC 96 (98): (1966) 1 SCR 796. (Civil P.C., 1908, O. 6, R. 17)

The expression 'cause of action' means that bundle of facts which the petitioner must prove, if traversed, to entitle him to a judgment in his favour by the Court, ONGC v. Utpal Kumar Basu, (1994) 4 SCC 711 (720).
'Cause of action' consists of bundle of facts which give cause to enforce the legal injury for redress in a court of law. The cause of action means, therefore, every fact, which if traversed, it would be necessary for the plaintiff to prove in order to support his right to a judgment of the court. In other words, it is a bundle of facts, which taken with the law applicable to them, gives the plaintiff a right to claim relief against the defendant. It must include some act done by the defendant since the absence of such an act no cause of action would possibly accrue or would arise, South East Asia Shipping Co. Ltd. v. Nav Bharat Enterprises (P.) Ltd., (1996) 3 SCC 443 (444). [Specific Relief Act, 1963, s. 38]

The expression 'cause of action' has acquired a judicially settled meaning. In the restricted sense cause of action means the circumstances forming the infraction of the right or the immediate occasion for the action. In the wider sense it means the necessary conditions for the maintenance of the suit, including not only the infraction of the right, but the infraction coupled with the right itself. Compendiously the expression means every fact which it would be necessary for the plaintiff to prove, if traversed, in order to support his right to the judgment of the Court. Every fact which is necessary to be proved, as distinguished from every piece of evidence which is necessary to prove each fact, comprises in 'cause of action', Rajasthan High Court Advocates, Asson. v. Union of India, AIR 2001 SC 416 (422): (2001) 2 SCC 294. [Civil Procedure Code, (5 of 1908), s. 20]

Cause of action implies a right to sue. The material facts which are imperative for the suitor to allege and prove constitute the cause of action. It has, been judicially interpreted inter alia to mean that every fact which would be necessary for the plaintiff to prove, if traversed, in order to support his right to the judgment of the court. Negatively put, it would mean that everything which, if not proved, gives the defendant an immediate right to judgment, would be part of cause of action, Kusum Ingots & Alloys Ltd. v. Union of India, (2004) 6 SCC 254 (259): AIR 2004 SC 2321. [Constitution of India, Art. 226(2)]

To mean a situation or state of facts that entitles a party to maintain action in court or tribunal, Navinchandra N. Majithia v. State of Maharastra, (2000) 7 SCC 640 [Civil Procedure Code, 1908, s. 20).

The expression 'cause of action' is generally understood to mean a situation or state of facts that entitles a party to maintain an action in a court or a tribunal; a group of operative facts giving rise to one or more bases for sitting; a factual situation that entitles one person to obtain a remedy in court from another person, Y. Abraham Ajith v. Inspector of Police, (2004) 8 SCC 100 (105): AIR 2004 SC 4286. [Civil Procedure Code, 1908, R. 1(e)]

If a suit for possession is decreed and the decree-holder gets possession and thereafter there is a fresh dispossession there is no difficulty in holding that a fresh suit is maintainable for ejectment, because the fresh trespass creates a fresh cause of action, Ajit Chopra v. Sadhu Ram, (2000) 1 SCC 114.

Every fact which it is necessary to establish to support a right or obtain, a judgment, Sadanandan Bhadran v. Madhavan Sunil Kumar, (1998) 6 SCC 514.

Means 'the bundle of facts which it would be necessary for the plaintiff to prove, if traversed, in order to support his right to the judgment of the court, Navinchandra N. Majithia v. State of Maharashtra, (2000) 7 SCC 640.

Cause of action, in common legal parlance is existence of those facts, which give a party a right to judicial interference on his behalf, Om Prakesh Srivastava v. Union of India, (2006) 6 SCC 207.