Never Indebted
Bouvier's Law Dictionary and Concise Encyclopedia · John Bouvier; revised by Francis Rawle · 1914
Bouvier's Law Dictionary and Concise Encyclopedia
A pica to an action of indebitatus assumpsit, by which the defendant asserts that he is not indebted to the plaintiff.
6 C. & P. 545; 1 Q. B. 77.
The plea of never indebted has, in England, been substituted for nil debet, in certain actions specified in schedule B (36) of the Common Law Procedure Act of 1852; and the effect of the plea never indebted is to deny those facts from which the liability of the defendant is alleged. In actions on negotiable bills or notes, never indebted is inadmissible; Reg. Gen. nil.
T. 1833, §§ 6, 7; 3 Chitty, Stat. 560.
By the judicature act, 1875, Ord. xix. r. 20, a defendant is no longer allowed to deny generally the facts alleged by the plaintiff; Whart. Lex. A defendant cannot, under the plea of “never indebted,” contend that, though a contract was made in fact, it was void in point of law, for the facts from which its invalidity is inferred must form the subject of a special plea; Moz. & W.