Roe, Richard

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Roe, Richard. One of the fictitious individuals used in the old procedure of ejectment. Ejectment was a writ which developed from trespass de ejectione firmae to enable a leaseholder to recover his leasehold land. Since it was speedy and effective, the procedure was attractive to freeholders, who in order to avail themselves of the writ pretended that a lease had been granted to a fictitious individual—John Doe—who became the plaintiff. The defendant's lessee—also fictitious—would be Richard Roe (or William Styles). The action was abolished in 1852 but these fictitious names are still used in the common law, especially in the USA, to disguise a real litigant.

Maureen Mulholland