Plaint

The name of the complaint in some inferior English courts. The term is not in general use in the United States, but appears in plaintiff. Plaint is, 1. The propounding or exhibiting of any action in writing. ( Cowel. ) 2. A private memorial tendered in open court to a judge, wherein the party injured sets forth his cause of action; which was done in the old county court or other local court, when the action was brought to recover a sum under forty shillings; and the judge was bound of common right to administer justice therein without any mandate from the king. The proceeding in the local court thus differed from that in the king's courts, where actions commenced by original writ. (3 BL Com. 273.) 3. The written statement of an action in the modern county court, which is entered by the plaintifE in a book kept by the registrar for the purpose. (Stat. 9 ^ 10 Vict. ch. 95, § 59; 3 Steph. Com. 288; Davis County Courts, 5th ed. 65.) Mozley Sr W.