Other forms: appellees
When someone loses a legal case and files an appeal, the appellee is the person or group who won the original case and is now defending that lower court's decision in a court of appeals.
If the defendant in a criminal case is found guilty, they can file an appeal in the hopes of overturning the decision. That defendant is then known as the appellant, while the government prosecutor, who won the original conviction, becomes the appellee. When a party loses a civil lawsuit and files an appeal, they become the appellant, while the party who won in the lower court becomes the appellee. There can be more than one appellee, depending on how many plaintiffs there were in the original trial. The Latin root of appellee is appellare, "to call upon or speak to."