(I) remedies. This technical term is used to designate proceedings or actions instituted against the thing, in contradistinction to personal actions which are said to be in personam. Proceedings in rem include not only judgments of property as forfeited, or as prize in the admiralty, or the English exchequer, but also the decisions of other courts upon the personal status, or relations of the party, such as marriage, divorce, bastardy, settlement, or the like. 1 Greenl. Ev. 525, 541. 2. Courts of admiralty enforce the performance of a contract by seizing into their custody the very subject of hypothecation; for in these case’s the parties are not personally bound, and the proceedings are confined to the thing in specie. Bro. Civ. and Adm. Law, 98; and see 2 Gall. R. 200; 3 T. R. 269, 270. 3. There are cases, however, where the remedy is either in personam or in rem. Seamen, for example, may proceed against the ship or cargo for their wages, and this is the most expeditious mode; or they may proceed against the master or owners. (II) Latin phrase meaning regarding a thing and is usually used to refer to the ownership of an item or property, e.g. In Rem Jurisdiction or the power to compel a person to court as a result of property they may own within a state.
Law Dictionary – Alternative Legal Definition
A technical term used to designate proceedings or actions Instituted against the thing, in contradistinction to personal actions, which are said to be in personam. See IN PERSONAM. It is true that, in a strict sense, a proceeding in rem is one taken directly against property, and has for its object the disposition of property, without reference to the title of individual claimants; but, in a larger and more general sense, the terms are applied to actions between parties, where the direct object is to reach and ispose of property owned by them, or of some interest therein. Such are cases commenced by attachment against the property of debtors, or instituted to partition real estate, foreclose a mortgage, or enforce a lien. So far as they affect property in this state, they are substantially proceedings in rem in the broader sense which we have mentioned. Pennoyer v. Neff, 95 U. S. 734, 24 L. Ed. 565. Quasi in rem. A term applied to proceedings which are not strictly and purely in rem, but are brought against the defendant personally, though the real object is to deal with particular property or subject property to the discharge of claims asserted; for example, foreign attachment, or proceedings to foreclose a mortgage, remove a cloud from title, or effect a partition. See Freeman v. Alderson. 119 U. S. 187, 7 Sup. Ct. 165, 30 I Ed. 372; Hill v. Henry, 66 N. J. Eq. 150, 57 Atl. 555. In rem actio est per quam rem nostram qun ab alio possidetur petimus, et semper adversus emu est qui rem possidet. The action in rem is that by which we seek our property which is possessed by another, and is always against him who possesses the property. Dig. 44, 7, 25; Bract, fol. 102.