Legal Definitions - revocatur

Revocatur is a historical legal term from Latin, meaning "it is recalled." In former English legal practice, this notation was specifically applied to a court judgment that was being set aside, or canceled, because it was discovered to be based on a significant factual error. This was distinct from a judgment being "reversed," which typically occurred when there was an error in how the law was applied. Essentially, "revocatur" signified that the court was acknowledging a mistake in the underlying facts that led to the original decision.

Here are a few examples to illustrate this concept:

• Imagine a historical case where a court issued a judgment granting ownership of a specific piece of land to one party, based on a property deed presented as evidence. Later, it was conclusively proven that the deed itself was a forgery, meaning the fundamental fact of ownership presented to the court was false.

  In this scenario, the original judgment would have been marked revocatur because the court's decision was based on a critical factual error – the authenticity of the deed. The judgment was not reversed due to a misapplication of property law, but rather recalled because the underlying facts were incorrect.

• Consider a case where a merchant was ordered by a court to pay a substantial sum to another party, based on an invoice presented as proof of goods delivered. Subsequently, it was discovered through new evidence (e.g., warehouse logs, witness testimony) that the goods listed on the invoice were never actually shipped or received by the merchant.

  Here, the judgment would be subject to revocatur. The court's original decision relied on the factual premise that goods were delivered and owed for. Once that core fact was disproven, the judgment, being based on a factual mistake rather than a legal one, would be recalled using this notation.