RETURN DAY. A day appointed by law when all writs2 are to be returned which have issued since the preceding return day. The sheriff is in general not required to return his writ1 until the return day. After that period he may be ruled to make a return.
RETURN OF WRITS, practice. A short account in writing, made by the sheriff, or other ministerial officer, of the manner in which he has executed a writ. Steph. on Pl. 24.
2. It is the duty of such officer to return all writs on the return day; on his neglecting to do so, a rule may be obtained on him to return the writ and, if he do not obey the rule, he may be attached for contempt. See 19 Vin. Ab. 171; Con]. Dig. Return; 2 Lilly's Abr. 476; Wood. b. 1, c. 7; 1 Penna. R. 497; 1 Rawle, R. 520; 3 Yeates, 17; 3 Yeates, 47; 1 Dall. 439.
REUS, civil law. This word has two different meanings. 1. A party to a suit, whether plaintiff or defendant3; Reus est qui cum altero litem contestatem habet, sive legit, sive cum eo adum est. 2. A party to a contract; reus credendi is be to whom something is due, by whatever title it may be; reus debendi is he who owes, for whatever cause. Poth. Pand. lib. 50, h. t.
REVENDICATION, civil and French law. An action by which a man demands a thing of which he claims to be owner. It applies to immovables as well as movables; to corporeal4 or encorporeal things. Merlin, Repert. h. t.
2. By the civil law, he who has sold goods for cash or on credit may demand them back from the purchaser, if the purchase-money is not paid according to contract. The action of revendication is used for this purpose. See an attempt to introduce the principle of revendication into our law, in 2 Hall's Law Journal, 181.
3. Revendication, in another sense, corresponds, very nearly, to the sTOPpage in transitu of the common law. It is used in that sense in the Code de Commerce, art. 577. Revendication, says that article, can take place only when the goods sold are on the way to their place of destination, whether by land or water, and before they have been received into the warehouse5 of the insolvent6, or that of his factor or agent, authorized7 to sell them on account of the insolvent. See Dig. 14, 4, 15;Dig. 18, 1, 19, 53; Dig. 19, f, 11.
