Calling The Plaintiff

In practice

A formality practised in courts, on the trial of a cause before a jury, as preliminary to nonsuiting the plaintiff. It is usual in English practice, for a plaintiff, when he or his counsel perceives that he has not given evidence sufficient to maintain his issue, to be voluntarily non-suited, or to withdraw himself; whereupon the crier is ordered to call the plaintiff; and if neither he, nor any body for him, appears, he is non-suited, the jurors are discharged, the action is at an end, and the defendant shall recover his costs.

3 Bl. Com. 376.

Hence the phrase has become synonymous with nonsuiting the plaintiff. "The plaintiff must be called;" that is, must be nonsuited. See the reports passim. The practice of calling the plaintiff to hear the verdict was dispensed with in the Supreme Court of New- York, in 1847.

S.C.

Rules, ed.

1847, R. 46.