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28 Ind. 473

Lowry v. Dutton

Indiana Supreme Court

Decided November 15, 1867

Indiana Supreme Court · decided 1867-11-15

<p>Pleading. — It is sufficient if the names of the parties are stated in the title of the cause.</p> <p>Same. — Trespass.—An objection that a complaint for trespass does not state where the trespass was committed,, is not raised by a demurrer for want of sufficient facts.</p> <p>Same. — Prayer por Judgment. — A prayer for judgment is only a matter of form, and the want of it, where a cause of action is stated, cannot be reached by demurrer.</p> <p>Same. — Signature op Party or Attorney. — Where an amended complaint was not signed by the party or his attorney, it was held that as the defect was amendable on motion below, it would be regarded as amended on appeal, unless the objection was presented below by a motion to strike it from the files.</p>

Relies on Fankboner v. Fankboner · Harris v. Osenback

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1867-11-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 18 later decisions — most recently June 1982

18 state decisions

701867187018801890190019101920193019401950196019701980decided

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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Ray, J.

¶1— Dutton sued Lowry before a justice of the peace for trespass done by cattle. Lowry had judgment. Hutton appealed to the Common Pleas. There a demurrer was sustained to the complaint, and Hutton filed an amended complaint in the following words: “ That the plaintiff and one Bathbum each rented a piece of ground upon which to *474raise crops; that each raised crops on their respective lands so leased; that said pieces of land so leased were not separated by a fence sufficient to turn cattle; that after raising the said crops, and while the plaintiff’s grain was'yet in the said field, the defendant, knowing that said fields were not separated by a sufficient fence, and that the plaintiff’s grain was yet in the said field so leased by him, did unlawfully, wrongfully, &c., turn into the field so leased by the said Rathburn, a lot of cattle and other stock, which went upon the lands leased by the plaintiff and ate up, tranrpled upon and destroyed the crops of the plaintiff; that the said fence was not an outside fence, and it was not the duty of the plaintiff nor of the owner of the soil to erect a fence between said fields; that said defendant was warned against putting said cattle into said field by said Rathburn and by the plaintiff', and that said cattle destroyed two-thirds of twenty-eight acres of corn, of the value of $-, and one hundred and thirty bushels of oats, and two stacks of hay and oats, property of the plaintiff, all of the value of $200.”

¶2To this complaint a demurrer was overruled. The defendant then filed a plea in abatement, alleging that the cattle mentioned in the plaintiff’s complaint were not the cattle of the defendant, but the property of the defendant and one Lyman Blair.. To this plea, a demurrer was sustained. The defendant appeals to this court, and assigns for error the overruling of the demurrer to the amended complaint, and the sustaining of the demurrer to the plea in abatement.

¶3In support of the demurrer, it is urged that the amended complaint does not contain the names of the parties. They are stated in the title of the cause. Again, that it does not state when or where the trespass was committed. The demurrer was not for want of jurisdiction, even if that cause would have raised any question when the want of such jurisdiction did not appear on the face of the cpmplaint. No judgment was asked. This is only a matter of form, and *475where a cause of action is stated, cannot be reached by demurrer. The amendment was not signed by the party or his attorney. The original complaint was signed, and this defect was amendable on motion, and will be regarded as amended in this court, unless presented in the court below by motion to strike it from the files. Fankboner v. Fankboner, 20 Ind. 62; Harris et al., v. Osenback, 13 Ind. 445. The appellant submits that it is unnecessary to examine whether the answer in abatement is good or not. We fully concur. The act of reading .it supersedes an examination.

T. J. Merrifield and W. H. Calkins, for appellant.S. I. Anthony, F. Church, S. E. Perkins and L. Jordan, for appellee.

¶4The judgment is affirmed, with costs, and ten per cent, damages.

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