Repetition

The act by which a person demands and seeks to recover what he has paid by mistake, or delivered on a condition which has not been performed. The name of an action which lies to recover the payment which has been made by mistake, when nothing was due.

Repetition is never admitted in relation to natural obligations which have been voluntarily acquitted, if the debtor had capacity to give his consent. The same rule obtains in our law. A person who has voluntarily acquitted a natural or even a moral obligation, cannot recover back the money by an action for money had and received, or any other form of action.

In order to entitle the payer to recover back money paid by mistake it must have been paid by him to a person to whom he did not owe it, for otherwise he cannot recover it back, the creditor having in such case the just right to retain the money.

How far money paid under a mistake of law is liable to repetition, has been discussed by civilians, and opinions on this subject are divided.

Scotch law. The act of reading over a witness deposition, in order that he may adhere to it, or correct it at his choice. The same as Recolement, in the French law.
   

This entry contains material from Bouvier's Legal Dictionary, a work published in the 1850's.