Legal Definitions - appellee

An appellee is the party in a legal case against whom an appeal is filed. This party typically won in the lower court or is otherwise satisfied with the lower court's decision and seeks to have that decision upheld by the appellate court. When an appeal is initiated, the appellee's role is to respond to the arguments made by the appealing party (known as the appellant) and defend the original judgment or order.

Here are some examples to illustrate the role of an appellee:

• Contract Dispute: A small business, "InnovateTech," sued a larger corporation, "GlobalCorp," for failing to pay for custom software development. The trial court ruled in favor of InnovateTech, awarding them the full amount owed. GlobalCorp, dissatisfied with this outcome, filed an appeal to a higher court.

  In this situation, InnovateTech is the appellee because they won the initial case and are now responding to GlobalCorp's appeal, seeking to uphold the trial court's decision.

• Family Law - Child Custody: After a contentious divorce, the trial court issued a custody order granting primary physical custody of the children to Ms. Rodriguez. Her ex-husband, Mr. Chen, believing the decision was unfair, filed an appeal to a higher court.

  Here, Ms. Rodriguez is the appellee. She is the party against whom the appeal was filed, and her role is to defend the trial court's custody order that was favorable to her.

• Property Dispute: Mr. Henderson successfully sued his neighbor, Ms. Davies, to establish an easement allowing him access across her property. The trial court agreed with Mr. Henderson and granted the easement. Ms. Davies then decided to appeal this judgment.

  Mr. Henderson is the appellee. He was the winning party in the lower court and is now responsible for responding to Ms. Davies' appeal, aiming to keep the easement he was granted.