Legal Definitions - Goodright

Goodright is a historical legal term that refers to a fictitious name, much like a placeholder, sometimes used for the plaintiff (the party bringing the lawsuit) in an "ejectment action." An ejectment action was a specific type of lawsuit brought to recover possession of real property (land or buildings) from someone who was wrongfully occupying it. In these historical cases, "Goodright" would be listed as the plaintiff on court documents, even though no such person actually existed.

This practice was a procedural device designed to simplify complex land disputes and allow the case to move forward. It was often employed when the true claimant's identity was complicated, or for other technical legal reasons. Another similar fictitious name, "John Doe," was more commonly used for the same purpose.

• Example 1: Disputed Inheritance

  In 18th-century England, two distant cousins were locked in a complex dispute over who rightfully inherited a large ancestral estate. To initiate the legal process of ejectment against the current occupant, who was refusing to vacate, the lawyers might have filed the lawsuit in the name of Goodright as the plaintiff.

  This illustrates Goodright as a fictitious plaintiff in an ejectment action. It allowed the legal proceedings to begin addressing the real dispute over land possession without immediately having to resolve the intricate inheritance claims between the cousins at the very outset of the procedural filing.

• Example 2: Evicting a Squatter

  Consider a historical scenario where a wealthy landowner discovered a squatter had built a small dwelling on a remote corner of their vast property. To legally remove the squatter and reclaim possession of the land through an ejectment action, the landowner's legal team might have historically used Goodright as the named plaintiff on the initial court documents.

  Here, Goodright serves as the fictitious party initiating the lawsuit to reclaim possession of the land. This streamlined the procedural aspects of the ejectment action on behalf of the actual landowner, who was the true party with the right to the property.