Thing in action

Chose (pronounced: /ʃoʊz/, French for "thing") is a term used in common law tradition in different senses. A chose local is a thing annexed to a place, such as a mill. A chose transitory is something movable, that can be carried from place to place. However, chose in those senses is practically obsolete, and it is now used only in the phrases chose in action and chose in possession.

A chose in action is essentially a right to sue. It is an intangible personal property right recognized and protected by the law, that has no existence apart from the recognition given by the law, and that confers no present possession of a tangible object. Another term is a thing in action.

A chose in action, sometimes called a chose in suspense, in its more limited meaning, denotes the right to enforce payment of a debt by legal proceedings, obtain money by way of damages for contract, or receive recompense for a wrong. Less accurately, money that could be recovered is frequently called a chose in action, as is also sometimes the document that represents a title to a chose in action, such as a bond or a policy of insurance—though strictly it is only the right to recover the money. Choses in action were, before the Judicature Acts, either legal or equitable. Where the chose could be recovered only by an action at law, as a debt (whether arising from contract or tort), it was termed a legal chose in action; where the chose was recoverable only by a suit in equity, as a legacy or money held upon a trust, it was termed an equitable chose in action. Before the Judicature Acts, a legal chose in action was not assignable, i.e., the assignee could not sue at law in his own name. To this rule there were two exceptions:

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