Answer

pleading in equity, is a defence in writing made by a de- rr fendant, to the charges contained in a bill or information, filed in a court of equity by the plaintiff against him. As a detendant ts called by a bill or information to make a discovery of the several charges it contains, he must do so, unless he ig protected either by a demurrer, a plea or disclaimer. It may be laid down as an invariable rule that whatever part of a bill or information is not covered by one of these must be defended by answer.

Redesd. Tr. Ch. Pl. 244.

In form it usually begins, Ist, with its title, specifying which of the defendants it is the answer of, and the names of the plaintiffs in the cause in which it is filed as answer; 2d, it reserves to the defendant all advantages which might be taken by exception to the bill; 3d, the substance of the answer, according to the defendant’s knowledge, remembrance, information and belief, then follows, in which the matter of the bill, with the interrogatories founded thereon, are answered, one after the other, together with such additional matter as the defendant thinks necessary to bring forward in his defence, either for the purpose of. qualifying, or adding to, the case made by the bill, or to state a new case on his general traverse or denial of all unlawful combinations charged in the bill, and of all other matters therein contained; 5th, the answer is always upon oath or affirmation, except in the case of a corporation, in which case it is under the corporate seal. In substance the answer ought to contain, Ist, a statement of facts and not arguments; 2d, a confession and avoidance, or traverse and denial of the. material parts of the bill; 3d, its language ought to be direct and without evasion.

Vide generally as to answers, Redes. Tr. Ch. Pl. 244 to 254; Coop. Pl. Eq. 312 to 327; Beames Pl. Eq. 34 et seq.

Foran historical account of this instrument, see 2 Bro. Civ. Law, 371, n..