Confession And Avoidance

In pleading. The admission of the truth of a statement of fact contained in the pleading of the opposite party, coupled with the allegation of a new fact, which obviates or repels its legal effect, and thus avoids it. A pleading framed upon this principle is called a pleading in confession and avoidance, or by way of confession and avoidance.

Steph. Plead. 52, 198, 200. 3 Bl. Com. 310.

Thus, where a release is pleaded in bar to a declaration, the plaintiff may reply, admitting the execution of the release, but avoiding the legal effect of that fact, by stating a new fact, viz. that it was obtained by fraud or the like. The admission, however, in these cases is never made in express terms, though it must always be distinctly implied in, or inferable from the matter of the pleading.

Steph. Pl. 200.