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103 Wis. 334

Doolittle v. Laycock

Wisconsin Supreme Court

Decided June 2, 1899

Wisconsin Supreme Court · decided 1899-06-02

Plaintiffs are attorneys, and bring this action to recover for professional services rendered to defendant. Answer was made putting in issue tbe value of such services, and setting up a counterclaim.

Relies on Young v. Lynch · Fitts v. Waldeck · Hanson v. Anderson

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Beversed · Decided 1899-06-02

How this case has been cited

Cited by 4 later decisions — most recently November 1966

4 state decisions

2018991900191019201930194019501960decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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BardeeN, J.

¶1“ The general and well-established rule in pleading is that the pleader should state the particular facts which constitute his cause of action or defense, and a general allegation that the opposite party caused an injury or loss to the pleader by carelessness or negligence, or by his fraudulent acts, is not to be tolerated as a sufficient statement of facts, unless the opposite party is disposed to admit the truth *336of such general statements by a demurrer, or be takes issue upon them.” Young v. Lynch, 66 Wis. 514. This language •of Judge Taylor is applicable to the pleading under consideration. It is true that the allegations showing the plaintiffs’ liability are quite general, and that the precise act or •omission which caused the resulting damage is not stated. Negligence or incompetency is a mixed question of law and fact, and hence allegations of negligence or incompetency, as applied to the conduct of a party, are not mere conclusions of law, but rather statements of ultimate facts. Many cases might be cited where courts have sustained pleadings upon mere general allegations of neglect or omission of duty, when they have been tested by demurrer. No doubt, the opposite party is entitled to have a more particular statement of the charge against him, but he cannot secure that relief by demurrer. His remedy is by motion to make the pleading more definite and certain. Fitts v. Waldeck, 51 Wis. 567; and see Carey v. C. & N. W. R. Co. 67 Wis. 608; Cheney v. C., M. & N. R. Co. 75 Wis. 223; Schneider v. Wis. Cent. Co. 81 Wis. 356; Monahan v. N. W. C. Co. 84 Wis. 596; Hanson v. Anderson, 90 Wis. 195.

¶2The counterclaim alleges that plaintiffs were practicing attorneys; that they were employed by defendant; that they did not act for the best interests of defendant, but conducted the business confided to them “ incompetently, dishonestly, carelessly, and negligently,” and that in consequence thereof the defendant was compelled to pay and did pay two hundred and fifty dollars more than was justly due from him. Admitting these statements to be true, there is enough to raise an issue. Undoubtedly the pleading would have been susceptible to a motion to make more definite. It is very far from being a model, and would have received judicial condemnation had the proper proceeding been taken.,

¶3By the Court.— The order of the circuit court is reversed, and the cause is remanded for further proceedings according to law.

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