Blacks Law Dict. 1st ed

PLAINT

PLEAD ISSUABLY

901

PLAINT. In English practice. A pri vate memorial tendered in open court to the judge, wherein the party injured sets forth his cause of action. A proceeding in inferior courts by which an action is commenced without original writ. 3 Bl. Comm. 373» This mode of proceeding is commonly adopted in cases of replevin. 3 Steph. Comm. 666. PLAINTIFF. A person who brings an action; the party who complains or s aes in a personal action and is so named on the rec ord. PLAINTIFF IN ERROR. The party who sues out a writ of error to review a judg ment or other proceeding at law. PLAN. A map, chart, or design; being a delineation or projection on a plane sur face of the ground lines of a house, farm, street, city, etc., reduced in absolute length, but preserving their relative positions and proportion. PLANT. The fixtures, tools, machinery, and apparatus which are necessary to carry on a trade or business. Wharton. PLANTATION. In English law. A colony; an original settlement in a new coun try. See 1 Bl. Comm. 107. In American law. A farm; a large cul tivated estate. Used chiefly in the southern states. In North Carolina, "plantation " signifies the land a man owns which he is cultivating more or less in annual crops. Strictly, it designates the place planted; but in wills it is generally used to denote more than the inclosed and cultivated fields, and to take in the necessary woodland, and, indeed, commonly all the land forming the parcel or par cels under culture as one farm, or even what is worked by one set of hands. 10 Ired. 431. PLAT, or PLOT. A map, or represen tation on paper, of a piece of land subdivided into lots, with streets, alleys, etc., usually drawn to a scale. PLAY-DEBT. Debt contracted by gam ing. PLAZA. A Spanish word, meaning a public square in a city or town. PLEA. In old English law. A suit or action. Thus, the power to "hold pleas" is the power to take cognizance of actions or suits; so "common pleas" are actions or suits between private persons. And this meaning of the word still appears in the modern dec larations, where it is stated, e. g., that the defendant "has been summoned to answer the plaintiff in &plea of debt."

In common-law practice. A pleading; any one in the series of pleadings. More particularly, the first pleading on the part of the defendant. In the strictest sense, the answer which the defendant in an action at law makes to the plaintiff's declaration, and in which he sets up matter of fact as defense, thus distinguished from a demurrer, which interposes objections on grounds of law. In equity. A special answer showing or relying upon one or more things as a cause why the suit should be either dismissed or delayed or barred. Mitf. Eq. PI. 219; Coop. Eq. PI. 223. A short statement, in response to a bill in equity, of facts which, if inserted in the bill, would ren der it demurrable; while an answer is a complete statement of the defendant's case, and contains answers to any interrogatories the plaintiff may have administered. Hunt, Eq. pt. 1, c. 3. PLEA IN ABATEMENT. In practice. A plea which goes to abate the plaintiff's action; that is, to suspend or put it off for the present. 3 Bl. Comm. 301. PLEA IN BAR. In practice. A plea which goes t&bar the plaintiff's action; that is, to defeat it absolutely and entirely. 1 Burrill, Pr. 162; 3 Bl. Comm. 303. PLEA SIDE. The plea side of a court is that branch or department of the court which entertains or takes cognizance of civil actions and suits, as distinguished from its criminal or crown department. Thus the court of queen's bench is said to have a plea side and a crown or criminal side; the one branch or department of it being devoted to the cogni zance of civil actions, the other to criminal proceedings and matters peculiarly concern ing the crown. So the court of exchequer is said to have a plea side and a crown side; the one being appropriated to civil actions, the other to matters of revenue. Brown. PLEAD. To make, deliver, or file any pleading; to conduct the pleadings in a cause. To interpose any pleading in a suit which contains allegations of fact; in this sense the word is the antithesis of "demur." More particularly, to deliver in a formal manner the defendant's answer to the plaintiff's dec laration, or to the indictment, as the case may be. To appear as a pleader or advocate in a cause; to argue a cause in a court of justice. But this meaning of the word is not tech nical, but colloquial. PLEAD ISSUABLY. This means to interpose such a plea as is calculated to raise a material issue, either of law or of fact.

Archive CD Books USA