A challenge of the property or ownership of a thing which is wrongfully withheld from the possession of the claimant. Stowell v. Zouali, Plowd. 359; Robinson v. Wiley, 15 N. Y. 491; Fordyce v. Godman, 20 Ohio St. 14; Douglas v. Beasley, 40 Ala. 147; Prigg v. Pennsylvania, 16 Pet. 615, 10 L. Ed. 1060; U. S. v. Rhodes (C. C.) 30 Fed. 433; Silliman v. Eddy, 8 How. Prac. (N. Y.) 123. A claim is a right or title, actual or supposed, to a debt, privilege, or other thing in the possession of another; not the possession, but the means by or through which the claimant obtains the possession or enjoyment. Lawrence v. Miller, 2 N. Y. 245, 254. A claim is, in a just, juridical sense, a demand of some matter as of right made by one person upon another, to do or to forbear to do some act or thing as a matter of duty. A more limited, but at the same time an equally expressive, definition was given by Lord Dyer, that “a claim is a challenge by a man of the propriety or ownership of a thing, which he has not in possession, but which is wrongfully detained from him.” Prigg v. Pennsylvania, 16 Pet. 615, 10 L. Ed. 1060. “Claim” has generally been defined as a demand for a thing, the ownership of which, or an interest in which, is in the claimant, but the possession of which is wrongfully withheld by another. But a broader meaning must be accorded to it. A demand for damages for criminal conversation with plaintiff’s wife is a claim ; but it would be doing violence to language to say that such damages are property of plaintiff which defendant withholds. In common parlance the noun “claim” means an assertion, a pretension ; and the verb is often used (not quite correctly) as a synonym for “state.” “urge,” “insist,” or “assert.” In a statute authorizing the courts to order a bill of particulars of the “claim” of either party, “claim” is co-extensive with “case,” and embraces all causes of action and all grounds of defense, the pleas of both parties, and pleas in confession and avoidance , no less than complaints and counter-claims. It warrants the court in requiring a defendant who justifies in a libel suit to furnish particulars of the facts relied upon in justification . Orvis v. Jennings, 6 Daly (N. Y.) 446. 2. Under the mechanic’s lien law of Pennsylvania, a demand put on record by a mechanic or material-man against a building for work or material contributed to its erection is called a “claim.” 3. Under the land laws of the United States , the tract of land taken up by a preemptioner or other settler (and also his possession of the same) is called a “claim.” Railroad Co. v. Abiuk, 14 Neb. 95, 15 N. W. 317; Bowman v. Torr. 3 Iowa. 573. 4. In patent law , the claim is the specification by the applicant for a patent of the particular things in which he insists his Invention is novel and patentable ; it is the clause in the application in which the applicant defines precisely what his invention is. White v. Dunbar, 119 U. S. 47, 7 Sup. Ct. 72, 30 L. Ed. 303; Brammer v. Schroeder, 106 Fed. 930, 46 C. C. A. 41.
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