KFLCC Kingdom Law 2nd Ed.

904

PLEA

PLEADING

verbal or written opinions upon statements made verbally or in writing, and to draw pleadings, civil or criminal, and such practical proceedings as may be out of the usual course. 2 Chit Pr. 42. The peculiar science or system of rules and principles, established in the common law, according to which the pleadings or responsive allegations of liti gating parties are framed, with a view to preserve technical propriety and to produce a proper issue. The process performed by the parties to a suit or action, in alternately presenting written statements of their contention, each responsive to that which precedes, and each serving to narrow the field of controversy, until there evolves a single point, affirmed on one side and denied on the other, called the "issue," upon which they then go to trial. The act or step of interposing any one of the pleadings in a cause, but particularly one on the part of the defendant; and, in the strictest sense, one which sets up allegations of fact in defense to the action. The name "a pleading" is also given to any one of the formal written statements of accusation or defense presented by the par ties alternately in an action at law; the ag gregate of such statements filed in any one cause are termed "the pleadings." The oral advocacy of a client's cause in court, by his barrister or counsel, is some times called "pleading;" but this is a popu lar, rather than technical, use. In chancery practice. Consists in mak ing the formal written allegations or state ments of the respective parties on the rec ord to maintain the suit, or to defeat it, of which, when contested in matters of fact, they propose to offer proofs, and in matters of law to offer arguments to the court. Story, Eq. PI. § 4, note. —Double pleading. This is not allowed ei ther in the declaration or subsequent pleadings. Its meaning with respect to the former is that the declaration must not, in support of a single demand, allege several distinct matters, by any one of which that demand is sufficiently supported. With respect to the subsequent pleadings, the meaning is that none of them is to contain several distinct answers to that which preceded it; and the reason of the rule in each case is that such pleading tends to sev eral issues in respect of a single claim. Whar ton.—Special pleading. When the allega tions (or "pleadings," as they are called) of the contending parties in an action are not of the general or ordinary form, but are of a more complex or special character, they are denomi nated "special pleadings;" and, when a defend ant pleads a plea of this description, (i. e., a special plea,) he is said to plead specially, in opposition to pleading the general issue. These terms have given rise to the popular denomina tion of that science which, though properly called "pleading," is generally known by the name of "special pleading." Brown. The al legation of special or new matter in opposition or explanation of the last previous averments on the other side, as distinguished from a direct denial of matter previously alleged by the op posite party. Gould, PL c. 1, § 18. In popular PLEADING.

as courts should listen to, they are not "sham," in the sense of the statute. When, it needs argument to prove that an answer or demurrer is frivolous, it is not frivolous, and should not be stricken off. To warrant this summary mode of disposing of a defense, the mere read ing of the pleadings should be sufficient to dis close, without deliberation and without a doubt, that the defense is sham or irrelevant. Cottrill v. Cramer, 40 Wis. 559.—Special plea. A special kind of plea in bar, distinguished by this name from the general issue, and consisting usually of some new affirmative matter, though it may also be in the form of a traverse or de nial. See Steph. PI. 52, 162; Allen v. New Haven & N. Co., 49 Conn. 245.—Special plea in bar. One which advances new matter. It differs from the general, in this: that the latter denies some material allegation, but nev er advances new matter. Gould, PI. c. 2, § 38. 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 plain tiff's declaration, 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 jus tice. But this meaning of the word is not technical, but colloquial. —Plead a statute. Pleading a statute is stating the facts which bring the case within it; and "counting" on it, in the strict language of pleading, is making express reference to it by apt terms to show the source of right relied on. McCullough v. Colfax County, 4 Neb. (Unof.) 543, 95 N. W. 31.—Plead issuably. This means to interpose such a plea as is cal culated to raise a material issue, either of law or of fact.—Plead over. To pass over, or omit to notice, a material allegation in the last pleading of the opposite party; to pass by a defect in the pleading of the other party with out taking advantage of it In another sense, to plead the general issue, after one has inter posed a demurrer or special plea which has been dismissed by a judgment of respondeat ouster. —Plead to the merits. This is a phrase of long standing and accepted usage in the law, and distinguishes those pleas which answer the cause of action and on which a trial may be had from all pleas of a different character. Rahn v. Gunnison, 12 Wis. 529. in a judicial proceeding. It more often refers to matter of defense, but not invariably. To say that matter in a declaration or replication is not well pleaded would not be deemed erroneous. Abbott. PLEADER. A person whose business it is to draw pleadings. Formerly, when plead ing at common law was a highly technical and difficult art, there was a class of men known as "special pleaders not at the bar," who held a position intermediate between counsel and attorneys. The class is now al most extinct, and the term "pleaders" is generally applied, in England, to junior mem bers of the common-law bar. Sweet. —Special pleader. In English practice. A person whose professional occupation is to give PLEAD. PLEADED. Alleged or averred, inform,