Appeach

What does Appeach mean in American Law?

The definition of Appeach in the law of the United States, as defined by the lexicographer Arthur Leff in his legal dictionary is:

See impeach. “Appeacher” is also an old word for accuser. appeal. In legal language, a term of wide reference for the general process of bringing a matter before a “higher” tribunal that it might correct errors made in the hierarchically lower tribunal. An appeal is generally limited to review of the record of the lower proceeding, i.e., new evidence is not to be presented. An appeal may be from one court to another, or from an administrative agency to a higher tribunal in the agency, or to a court. There are appeals of right, and appeals which may be pursued only if the higher court (or, though rarely, the lower court) grants permission, e.g., the certiorari practice of the U.S. Supreme Court. There are a number of terms which still are used for particular varieties of “appeals,” e.g., writ of error. And the equivalent of an appeal for limited questions can be achieved by other means, e.g., petition for a writ of mandamus or prohibition alleging an abuse of discretion by a trial judge. There may once have been a distinction between an “appeal,” as a procedure in which matters of fact and law can be raised, and a “writ of error,” which was limited to questions of law, but the distinction is- gone by now.

The term “appellare” in Roman Law might mean to appeal, as above, but primarily it meant “to sue” or “to go to law.” Hence the occasional use in old common law of “appeal” as describing the process of originating the suit, e.g., the appeal of felony.

See also approver, whose action was also sometimes called an “appeal.”