Hand-Book of Common-Law Pleading (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Hand-Book of Common-Law Pleading

In the following pages, the writer has endeavored to state, as clearly and concisely as possible, such of the rules and principles of common-law pleading as are still recognized and applied in this country, omitting such of those found in the old English system as have become obsolete in practice, except where, as in the case of special pleading, they are the foundation of the method now in use, and giving due prominence to those rules whose principles are most noticeably applied in pleading under the codes. Whether the common-law rules are to be taken as directly followed in the latter, aside from the formalities prescribed in the practice acts, or wheth er the rules and principles of code pleading are to be considered as derived simply and only from the statute, the fact remains that a knowledge of the common-law system cannot fail to be of advantage, if, indeed, it is not an essential, to a thorough understanding of both code and equity pleading. It has been the observation and ex perience of the writer, not only that such knowledge enables a lawyer to frame his pleadings under the latter systems with greater ease and accuracy, but that, especially in code pleading, doubts as to the necessity or propriety of particular allegations, where the statute is silent or obscure in its directions, can generally be easily disposed of by an understanding of the reason of the common-law rule in similar cases. A lawyer who enters upon the active practice of his profession with no other guide than what the codes prescribe is but poorly qualified for attaining the important result of placing the statement of a complicated and important case before the court in a logical and concise form.

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