ACTION

"Legal Lexicon":
ACTION - Conduct, behaviour, something done. Nomen actionis latissime patere vulgo notum est ac comprehenders omnem omnino viventis operationem quae passioni opponitur.
Human actions have been divided into necessary actions, or those over which man has no control; and into free actions, or such as he can control at his pleasure. As man is responsible only when he exerts his will, it is clear lie can be punished only for the latter.
Actions are also divided into positives and negative the former is called an act of commision the latter is the omission of something which ought to be done, and is called an act of omission. A man may be responsible as well for acts of omission, as for acts of commission.
Actions are voluntary and involuntary. The former are performed freely and without constraint - the latter are performed not by choice, against one's will or in a manner independent of the will. In general a man is not responsible for his involuntary actions. Yet it has been ruled that if a lunatic hurt a man, he shall be answerable in trespass, although, if he kill a man, it is not felony.
French Com.Law. Stock in a company, shares in a corporation.
Practice. Actions are divided into criminal and civil.
A criminal action is a prosecution in a court of justice in the name of the government, against one or more individuals accused of a crime.
A civil action is a legal demand of one's right, or it is the form given by law for the recovery of that which is due. Till judgment the writ is properly called an action, but not after, and therefore, a release of all actions is regularly no bar of all execution. They are real, personal and mixed. An action is real or personal, according as realty or personalty is recovered; not according to the nature of the defence.
Real actions are those brought for the specific recovery of lands, tenements, or hereditaments. They are either droitural, when the demandant seeks to recover the property; or possessory when he endeavors to obtain the possession. Real Actions are, 1st. Writs of right; 2dly, Writs of entry, which lie in the per, the per et cui, or the post, upon disseisin, intrusion. or alienation. 3dly. Writs ancestral possessory, as Mort d' ancester, aid, besaiel, cosinage, or Nuper obiit. By these actions formerly all disputes concerning real estate, were decided; but now they are pretty generally laid aside in practice, upon account of the great nicety required in their management, and the inconvenient length of their process; a much more expeditious, method of trying titles being since introduced by other actions, personal and mixed.
Personal actions are those brought for the specific recovery of goods and chattels; or for damages or other redress for breach of contract, or other injuries, of whatever description; the specific recovery of lands, tenements, and hereditaments only excepted. Personal actions arise either upon contracts, or for wrongs independently of contracts. The former are account, assumpsit, covenant, debt, and detinue; see these words. In Connecticut and Vermont there is, an action used which is peculiar to those states, called the action of book debt. The actions for wrongs, injuries, or torts, are trespass on the case, replevin, trespass, trover.
Mixed actions are such as appertain, in some degree, to both the former classes, and, therefore, are properly reducible to neither of them, being brought for the specific recovery of lands, tenements, or hereditaments, and for damages for injury sustained in respect of such property. Every mixed action, properly so called, is also a real action. The action of ejectment is a personal action, and formerly, a count for an assault and battery might be joined with a count for the recovery of a term of Years in land.
Actions are also divided into those which are local and such as are transitory.
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