Legal Dictionary of Pakistan

natured personages

John Doe and Richard Roe, from their universal acquaintance and peculiar longevity, have become the ready and common pledges of every suitor." 1 George Crompton, Rules and Cases of Practice in the Courts of King's Bench and Common Pleas xlvii (3d ed. 1787). "The fictitious names John Doe and Richard Roe regularly appeared in actions of ejectment ... at common law. Doe was the nominal plaintiff, who by a fiction was said to have entered land under a valid lease; Roe was said to have ejected Doe, and the lawsuit took the title Doe u. Roe. These fictional allegations disappeared upon the enactment of the Common Law Procedure Act of 1852 .... Beyond actions of ejectment, and esp. in the U.S., John Doe, Jane Doe, Richard Roe, Jane Roe, and Peter Poe have come to identify a party to a lawsuit whose true name is either unknown or purposely shielded." Bryan A Garner, A Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage 290-91 (2d ed. 1995).