Plead

TO. To answer the indictment or, in a civil action, the declaration of the plaintiff, in a formal manner. To enter the defendant’s defence upon record. In a popular use, to make a forensic argument. The word is not so used by the legal profession. Steph. PI. App. n. I; Story, Eq. PI. § 4, n.

To make, deliver or file any pleading; to conduct the pleadings in a cause. To interpose any pleading in a suit which contains allegations of fact; in this sense the word ls the antithesis of "demur." More particularly, to deliver in a formal manner the defendant's answer to the plaintiff's declaration or to the indictment, as the case may be. To appear as a pleader or advocate in a cause; to argue a cause in a court of justice. But this meaning of the word ls not technical, but colloquial.

— Plead a statute. Pleading a statute is stating the facts which bring the case within it; and "counting" on it, in the strict language of pleading, is making express reference to it by apt terms to show the source of right relied on. McCullough v. Co.lfax County, 4 Neb. (Unof.) 543, 95 N. W. 31.

— Plead issuably. This means to interpose such a plea as is calculated to raise a material issue, either of law or of fact.

— Plead over. To pass over, or omit to notice, a material allegation in the last pleading of the opposite party; to pass by a defect in the pleading of the other party without taking advantage of it. In another sense, to plead the general issue, after one has interposed a demurrer or special plea which has been dismissed by a judgment of respondeat ouster.

— Plead to the merits. This is a phrase of long standing and accepted usage in the law, and distinguishes those pleas which answer the cause of action and on which a trial may be had from nil pleas of a different character. Rahn v. Gunnison. 12 Wis. 529.

Originally, to litiijate, to carry on a plea; in a stricter sense, to conduct that part of an action which consists in the allegations of the respective parties; to make an allegation of fact in a cause; to make that allegation of fact, on the part of a defendant, which follows and is opposed to the declaration.

To deliver defendant's response, in due form of law, to the suit, action, or prosecution. Plea and to plead are generally used of defences only; other inflections of the word embrace the plaintifi's formal statements. Bui Till's explanation of the different extensions in which to plead is used is excellent, as follows: Originally and radically, to litigate, to carry on a sisted in the allegations of the respective parties.

In a still stricter sense, to make an allegation of fact in a cause.

In the strictest sense, to make that allegation of fact, on the part of a defendant, which follows and is opposed to the plaintiff's declaration. Plead issuably. This means, to interpose such a plea as is calculated to raise a material issue, either of law or of fact. The defendant in an action is entitled, as a matter of right, to a certain number of days to plead. If he seeks to obtain further time, it is granted to him only by way of indulgence; and the coui-t in so doing usually annexes to its order the condition that the defendant shall plead issuably; that is, that he shall plead a fair and honajide plea, as distinguished from one which is calculated only to embarrass the defendant and to retard the progress of the action. The condition so annexed is, in effect, " an agreement by the defendant to speed the cause to its conclusion, and bring it to an issue upon the substantial merits of law or fact, without regard to any formal inaccuracies in the plaintiff's statement." Barker v. Gleadon, 5 Dowl. 136. Plead over. The expression to plead over is used in two senses. It sometimes means to pass over, or. omit to take notice of, a material allegation in the declaration. Where a party pleads without taking advantage, by demurrer or otherwise, of a defect in his adversary's pleading, he is said to plead over it. Also, where a defendant, having demurred or specially pleaded, has judgment given against him on such demurrer or special plea, and proceeds to plead the general issue, he is said to plead over. The decision of the court overruling a demurrer or special plea often reserves, in terms, a right to plead over.