Cite as: 513 U. S. 18 (1994)
Opinion of the Court
that the judgment below should not be permitted to stand when without any fault of the [petitioner] there is no power to review it upon the merits"); Heitmuller v. Stokes, 256 U. S., at 362 (remanding for dismissal because "without fault of the plaintiff in error, the defendant in error, after the proceedings below, . . . caus[ed] the case to become moot").
The reference to "happenstance" in Munsingwear must be understood as an allusion to this equitable tradition of vacatur. A party who seeks review of the merits of an adverse ruling, but is frustrated by the vagaries of circumstance, ought not in fairness be forced to acquiesce in the judgment.3 See Hamburg-Amerikanische, supra, at 477- 478. The same is true when mootness results from unilateral action of the party who prevailed below. See Walling, 321 U. S., at 675; Heitmuller, supra, at 362. Where mootness results from settlement, however, the losing party has voluntarily forfeited his legal remedy by the ordinary processes of appeal or certiorari, thereby surrendering his claim to the equitable remedy of vacatur. The judgment is not unreviewable, but simply unreviewed by his own choice. The denial of vacatur is merely one application of the principle that "[a] suitor's conduct in relation to the matter at hand may disentitle him to the relief he seeks." Sanders v. United States, 373 U. S. 1, 17 (1963) (citing Fay v. Noia, 372 U. S. 391, 438 (1963)).
In these respects the case stands no differently than it
would if jurisdiction were lacking because the losing party failed to appeal at all. In Karcher v. May, supra, two state
3 We thus stand by Munsingwear's dictum that mootness by happen-stance provides sufficient reason to vacate. Whether that principle was correctly applied to the circumstances of that case is another matter. The suit for injunctive relief in Munsingwear became moot on appeal because the regulations sought to be enforced by the United States were annulled by Executive Order. See Fleming v. Munsingwear, Inc., 162 F. 2d 125, 127 (CA8 1947). We express no view on Munsingwear's implicit conclusion that repeal of administrative regulations cannot fairly be attributed to the Executive Branch when it litigates in the name of the United States.
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