(A) A recognized legal right to bring an action in a court of law for which a plaintiff can sue for damages and compensation, for example, a cause of action due to the negligence or breach of contract of a defendant. Each cause of action requires certain discrete elements, all which must be proven to prevail in court and win the case. (B) By this phrase is understood the right to bring an action, which implies, that there is some person in existence who can assert, and also a person who can lawfully be sued; for example, where the payee of a bill was dead at the time when it fell due, it was held the cause of action did not accrue, and consequently the statute of limitations did not begin to run until letters of administration had been obtained by some one. 2. There is no cause of action till the claimant can legally sue, therefore the statute of limitations does not run from the making of a promise, if it were to perform something at a future time, but only from the expiration of that time, though, when the obligor promises to pay on demand, or generally, without specifying day, he may be sued immediately, and then the cause of action has accrued. When a wrong has been committed, or a breach of duty has occurred, the cause of action has accrued, though the claimant may be ignorant of it.
Law Dictionary – Alternative Legal Definition
Matter for which an action may be brought. The ground on which an action may be sustained. The right to bring a suit. Cause of action is properly the ground on which an action can be maintained; as when we say that such a person has no cause of action. But the phrase is often used to signify the matter of the complaint or claim on which a given action is in fact grounded, whether or not legally maintainable. Mozley & Whitley. It sometimes means a person having a right of action. Thus, where a legacy is left to a married woman, and she and her husband bring an action to recover it she is called in the old books the “meritorious cause of action.” 1 H. Bl. 108. The term is synonymous with right of action, right of recovery. Graham v. Scripture, 26 How. Prac. (N. Y.) 501. Cause of action is not synonymous with chose in action; the latter includes debts, etc., not due, and even stocks. Bank of Commerce v. Rutland & W. R. Co., 10 How. Prac. (N. Y.)