Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun One who brings a libel or institutes a suit in a court, especially in an ecclesiastical or an admiralty court. Also libelant.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • May 22, the vice-admiralty court pronounced a decree in a suit brought by her commander, as libellant, against the prize snow _Johnson_.

    Privateering and Piracy in the Colonial Period Illustrative Documents 1898

  • Under the presence of protecting her property from the claims of her husband's creditors, the Colonel was kind enough to take a conveyance of it to himself; and, shortly afterwards, the fair libellant; by which means he secured himself from those distracting cares which beset the young legal practitioner, who stands in immediate need of the wherewithal.

    The flush times of Alabama and Mississippi : a series of sketches, 1853

  • The custom in that State is, to put into the hands of the agent of the _libellant_ the effects _libelled_, and the proceeds of their sale, if it has taken place.

    The Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution, Vol. XI Jared Sparks 1827

  • Except as hereinafter provided, libels for divorce shall be filed, heard and determined in the superior court held for the county where one of the parties lives, except that, if the libellant has left the county where the parties lived together and the libellee still lives therein, the libel shall be heard and determined in the court held for that county.

    Acts and resolves passed by the General Court 1663

  • Supreme Judicial Court in the County where either party resides at the commencement of proceedings for cause of adultery, impotence, extreme cruelty, utter desertion continued for three consecutive years next prior to the filing of the libel, gross and confirmed habits of intoxication, cruel and abusive treatment, or, on the libel of the wife, where the husband being of sufficient ability, grossly or wantonly and cruelly refuses or neglects to provide suitable maintenance for her; provided that the parties were married in this state or cohabited here after marriage; or if the libellant resided here when the cause of divorce accrued or had resided here in good faith for one year prior to the commencement of the proceedings.

    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 9: Laprade-Mass Liturgy 1840-1916 1913

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