chose
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Chose
[French, Thing.] Chattel; item of Personal Property.
chose
‘a thing’.CHOSE, property. This is a French word, signifying thing. In law, it is
applied to personal property; as choses in possession, are such personal
things of which one has possession; choses in action, are such as the owner
has not the possession, but merely a right of action for their possession. 2
Bl. Com. 889, 397; 1 Chit. Pract. 99; 1 Supp. to Ves. Jr. 26, 59. Chitty
defines choses in actions to be rights to receive or recover a debt, or
money, or damages for breach of contract, or for a tort connected with
contract, but which cannot be enforced without action, and therefore termed
choses, or things in action. Com. Dig. Biens; Harr. Dig. Chose in
Action Chitty's Eq. Dig. b. t. Vide 1 Ch. Pr. 140.
2. It is one of the qualities of a chose in action, that, at common
law, it is not assignable. 2 John. 1; 15 Mass. 388; 1 Cranch, 367. But bills
of exchange and promissory notes, though choses in action, may be assigned
by indorsement, when payable to order, or by delivery when payable to
bearer. See Bills of Exchange.
3. Bonds are assignable in Pennsylvania, and perhaps some other states,
by virtue of statutory provisions.Inequity, however, all choses in action
are assignable and the assignee has an equitable right to enforce the
fulfilment of the obligation in the name of the assignor. 4 Mass. 511; 3
Day. 364; 1 Wheat. 236; 6 Pick. 316 9 ow. 34; 10 Mass. 316; 11 Mass. 157, n.
9 S. & R. 2441; 3 Yeates, 327; 1 Binn. 429; 5 Stew. & Port. 60; 4 Rand. 266;
7 Conn. 399; 2 Green, 510; Harp. 17; Vide, generally, Bouv. Inst. Index, h.t.
4. Rights arising ex delicto are not assignable either at law or in
equity.