GRAVAMEN

gravamen (gr<<schwa>>-vay-m<<schwa>>n). The substantial

point or essence of a claim, grievance, or complaint.

Gravamen
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"Gravamina" redirects here. For the list of grievances against the pre-Reformation Catholic
Church, see Centum gravamina teutonicae nationis.
Gravamen (from Lat. gravare, to weigh down; gravis, heavy), (plural gravamens or
gravamina), a complaint or grievance, the ground of a legal action, and particularly the more
serious part of a charge against an accused person. In legal terms, the essential element of a
lawsuit.
In English the term is used chiefly in legal submissions and judicial opinions. The word is
commonly misspelled gravaman.
Apart from the normal usage of the word, the gravamen test is used in contract law to

distinguish between the sale of goods and services in "hybrid" transactions.

Under the test each component of the sale is isolated and individually
determined to be either a good or a service.[1] The more common approach used by
courts is the predominant purpose test which looks at the general thrust of the exchange rather
than each individual component.
The term is also used in ecclesiastical courts, being the technical designation of a memorial
presented from the Lower to the Upper House of Convocation, setting forth grievances to be
redressed, or calling attention to breaches in church discipline.