Pleading

n. and part.

1.

The art, business, or science of draughting the usual formal written statements of the case of either party to a judicial proceeding, particularly a suit or action; also, the act or step of interposing either, and particularly of interposing a defence.

2.

Any of the usual formal written statements of a party's case is called a pleading; and the whole bodj' of these statements in any cause is termed the pleadings. According to Termes de la Ley and Cowel, the declaration is not included in the expression the pleadings. 8, The oral advocacy of a client's cause in court, by his barrister or counsel, is sometimes called pleading; but this is a popular rather than technical use. An affidavit made to procure an order of attachment is not a pleading, witliin a statute requiring a pleading to be verified.

Johnson v. Laughlin, 7 Kan. 359.

The mutual allegations or statements which are made by the plaintiff and defendant in a suit or action are termed the pleadings. These are now written or printed, and delivered between the contending parties, or to the proper officers appointed to receive them; but formerly tliey were actual viva voce pleadings in open court. The pleadings in an action are designated, according to their nature, by the following terms: declaration, plea, replication, rejoinder, surrejoinder, rebutter, and surrebutter. The principles on which these pleadings or contending statements are framed, and the manner in which they govern or affect the subsequent course of the cause, form the principal feature in the art or science of pleading, or, as it is popularly called, special pleading. Brown. The term pleadmgs has a technical and well-defined meaning. Pleadings are written allegations of what is affirmed on the one side, or denied on the other, disclosing to the court or jury having to try the cause the real matter in dispute between the parties. Desnoyer v. Hereux, 1 Minn. 17. •^ or upon the proposition of a plebeian magistrate, as a tribune.