Legal Definitions - nominatio auctoris

Nominatio Auctoris

Nominatio auctoris is a legal principle, primarily found in property disputes, where a defendant who is being sued for the recovery or ownership of an item or property asserts that the true ownership or right to possession lies with a third party. By making this assertion, the defendant effectively "names the originator" or true owner, thereby compelling that third party to step in and defend the claim instead.

This principle shifts the responsibility for defending the property's title or right of possession from the initial defendant to the party alleged to be the rightful owner or the original seller. It is also sometimes referred to as laudare auctorem.

Here are a few examples to illustrate this concept:

• Real Estate Dispute: Imagine a situation where a large development company sues a small, independent coffee shop, claiming the coffee shop is illegally occupying a piece of land that the development company recently purchased. The coffee shop owner, as the defendant, responds by stating that they are merely a tenant and that the property is legally owned by their landlord, "Downtown Properties LLC."

  This is an application of nominatio auctoris because the coffee shop owner is naming their landlord (the alleged true owner and originator of their right to occupy the space) and effectively asking the court to involve Downtown Properties LLC in the lawsuit to defend the property's ownership against the development company's claim.

• Disputed Art Ownership: Consider a scenario where a prominent art collector sues an individual, asserting that a valuable antique sculpture in the individual's possession was stolen from the collector's family decades ago and demands its immediate return. The individual, who legitimately purchased the sculpture years ago from a reputable art gallery, responds by stating that they acquired it in good faith from "Heritage Art Gallery" and that the gallery is the party responsible for proving the sculpture's legitimate provenance and defending the validity of its sale.

  In this instance, the individual (defendant) is using nominatio auctoris by naming Heritage Art Gallery (the seller and originator of their ownership) as the party who should defend the legitimacy of the sculpture's title against the art collector's claim.