plevin

Plevin is a historical legal term used in English common law to describe an action by which a plaintiff could recover goods or chattels that had been wrongfully taken or held by another person, often in disputes involving property rights after death or marital arrangements. The action was specially designed for circumstances where ordinary ownership claims were insufficient, allowing the plaintiff to bypass certain procedural limitations that protected the holder’s interests.

The word originates from the Middle English “pleven,” itself derived from the Old French “pelevin,” meaning “to seize” or “to hold.” Plevin entered legal usage in the late fifteenth century and remained an important remedy through the early modern period. Its procedural framework required the plaintiff to prove that the transfer or retention of goods was wrongful, and the action could be filed regardless of whether the goods were considered the subject of equitable possession or legal title.

In practice, plevin was frequently employed in cases involving widows, where a husband might claim his deceased wife’s property to secure debts, or where a husband had sold property without fully clearing all obligations. The action allowed the widow or her heirs to reclaim the goods. Prominent cases, such as the Hampton Court Plevins of the early 1520s, demonstrate the active use of the remedy in the royal courts.

By the seventeenth century, plevin fell out of favor as newer procedural tools for property recovery were developed, and the action was largely abandoned in favor of equitable writs and actions in the courts of chancery. Nonetheless, the term persists in legal dictionaries and historical legal studies as a key example of how English common law evolved mechanisms for protecting property rights in the context of marriage and inheritance.