Case ID: ala_9/html/0754-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "ORMOND, J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

RAINEY v. LONG.
    J. The defendant may prove under the general issue in assumpsit, that the' action was commenced before the debt was due.
    Error to Sumter County Court.
    Assumpsit by the defendant against the plaintiff in error. The declaration contains the common counts for work and labor. Plea, non assumpsit..
    
    Upon the trial, the plaintiff introduced evidence to show,, that he worked for defendant as an overseer from the 10th of April to the 10th of October, 1843, and that the services-were worth twelve dollars per month. The defendant proved that the work was done under an agreement, that plaintiff wa’s to receive twelve dollars per month, to be paid the 1st of January, 1844.
    The court charged, that under the plea to the merits, defendant could not defeat the action by showing that it was brought before the money was due, but if he desired to set up that as a defence, he should have pleaded in abatement; to which the plaintiff excepted and which he now assigns as error.
    Smith, for plaintiff in error.
    
      Bliss and Baldwin, contra,
    cited 3 Ala. Rep. 516 ; 5 Id. 380.
   ORMOND, J.

The court erred in its charge to the jury, upon the evidence. There is no necessity to plead in abatement, that the action was commenced before the cause of action arose, such a defence may be made under the general issue. This is the doctrine as laid down in all of the text books, and books of pleading. In Facquire v. Kynaston, 2 Lord Raymond, 1249, a plea in abatement for this cause was held bad, because it amounted to the general issue. Let the judgment be reversed and the cause remanded.