actionable claim
Section 3 of the Transfer of Property Act defines an actionable claim as a claim to any debt, other than a debt secured by mortgage, hypothecation or pledge, or a claim to a beneficial interest in movable property not in the claimant's possession, which the civil courts recognise as affording grounds for relief. The debt may be existing, accruing, conditional or contingent.
Common examples are book debts, the right to receive money under an insurance policy. Actionable claims are transferred by a written and signed instrument under s.130; notice to the debtor is needed to bind him. A secured debt is not an actionable claim; it passes with the security.
Example
The firm's unpaid invoices were actionable claims, so it could assign them to the bank by a signed instrument under s.130 TPA.
In Indian law
- Section 3, Transfer of Property Act, 1882 (definition of actionable claim)
- Sections 130 to 137, Transfer of Property Act, 1882 (transfer of actionable claims)
See also
transfer of property · movable property · mortgage · pledge
Read more in the study notes
- Negotiation, endorsement, assignment and presentment (Banking Law)
- Lending by banks: principles, priority sector, securities, interest and penalty (Banking Law)
- Res gestae, motive, conduct, identification, conspiracy and alibi (sections 4 to 9) (Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam)
- Computation of limitation: exclusion of time, fraud, acknowledgment, part-payment and continuing wrongs (Civil Procedure Code and Limitation Act)
- The liquidator, preferential payments and insolvency under the IBC (Company Law)
- Contract of sale, conditions and warranties (Contract II)