Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1841-1853, 1851-09-11


lie officers, and justices couItsenabing defendants
to give in evidence almost any defence under the general
issue thus making law for the officials the masters,
and another for the people; law for court, and
another law Tor another courta most glaring absurdi
~! For il the system be logical truthful and beau
sllu why deprive part of its benefts And If valua
bic 10 civil why not in criminal casesf Why shall the
criminal under his plea Of not guilty, be allowed to give
in evidence almost any Defence and the civil sutton be
compelled to plead specialyl Ii pleadings mainly
useful giving notice to the opposite party Of the
grounds OF defence, they would to be quite much
nay, State prosecutions than any other
The truth is that practically peadings Of great
value far notice Of the grounds to be relied upon
the defence concerned. 1t will quite rarely hap
pen that plaintiff does know OF all the main facts
and circumstances connected with his OF action,
and he we'll anticipate and suppose that his antago-
mist will rely such OF the facts of the may
tend 10 his advantage, form defence the action.
Inasmuch however, there may be instances, arising
from the decease absence Of the party the original
transaction where the plaintiff could know what de-
fence to anticipate, would least in favor Of such
persons if in all cases. retain in the written allega
tons of the parties substantial statement of the
of action and defence In Short whatever of the good
and truly valuable should upon careful review Of the
common law pleading be found, ought, in its principles,
to be misunderstanding those principles to such forms
most practical and easily administered. The
Constitution has provided for the abolition of the differ
ent forms Of action, and, Of necessity the law
system Of pleading follow. This is settled by the
paramount law of the land, and the question
longer be deemed open one; and il becomes
its place.
The only object of administering the laws, is to do
justice: and order do justice, truth be
tained and truth from falsehood hence,
OUR NEW SYSTEM MUST TRUE. No ought TO
be allowed to tell fasehood any where, much less in
court of justice and whether he be witness upon the
stand Judge upon TIE bench the same rule should
apply. All fictitious, proceedings and forms should be
abolished. John Doe, and Richard Roe have had their
day in court, and sufficiently long one it has been.
Known from the beginning fictitious characters, yet
lOr fhnna ri nfo hav laan oil
lowed claim and gate the title to all the disputed
lands of the State and every honest citizen who chose
to attempt the maintenance of his rights against them
compelled 10 admit three oil their lies to be true he
fore he could even be allowed to defend the title to his
farm viz the lease, entry and CUSTER of the books
OF the fictitious character the action of trover
and (egned issues. In all proceedings Of this sort
the parties compelled, whether they would not
to lsfy the truth in their written allegations and
the whole record in court is known TO be tissue of
fasehoods from beginning to end True, courts
call II by the gentle OF fiction, but these
proceedings are, generally, not entitled to the mild
of such appellaton, will be fully under
stood when look more closely the force and
effect Of language fiction is supposed to be made
up of combination Of circumstances bearing their
face the sembance of truth, and which might proba-
bly, be true WHILE on the conirary fictitious legal pro-
ceedngs commonly bear their face the broad impress
OF fasehood, without possibility of their truth.
Indeed, every knows they false, and their only
redeeming quality consists in their being likely to de-
ceive one but they this account the less
proceeding Of feiened issue The parties are repre-.
scented as having made bet, one that certain given
statement of facts does exist and the other that they do
not and the judgment of the corrt for the amount of
the bet in favor Of the party the other the ju
ry may find and yet betting is really illegal, indct
able in Inana And the evil Of fasehood is confined
such proceedings every body knows fictitious (
must that word but, in the shape of verbosty
and the monstrous perversion of language. has
tended itself the verge OF the ridiculous in the
common forms of our civil and criminal proceedings
What. for instance be more laughaby absurd than
ordinary count in the civil action OF respass to the
personfor assault and battery2 The defendant has
probably in the excitement OF passion struck the plaintiff
slight blow, or, at farthest, had little cnch with
him, doing great damage either to his person or Dig
nifty suit is brought, and listen il you please TO
the dolorous complaint of the deeply injured party
contained in Of his declaration. quote from
entity where all 90 get our forms.
'For that the said defendant &c. at &C. with force
and assaulted the said plaintiff and then and there
spit in the face Of the said plaintiff and with great force
and violence seized and laid hold of the said plaintiff by
his and greatly pulled and squeezed the same and
then and there pucked, pulled and tore divers large
quantities of hair from off the head of said plaintiff, and
then and there with certain stick and with his fists,
and struck the said plaintiff great many violent
blows and strokes and about divers parts Of his body
and also then and there with great force and violence
shook and pulled about the said plaintiff and cast and
threw the said plaintiff down to and upon the ground,
and then and there violently kicked the said plaintiff and
gave and struck him great many other blows and
strokes and about divers parts of his body and also
then and there f0rce and violence and
tore and damaged the clothes and wearing apparel
wit: coat, waiscoat, pair of breeches
cravat shirt: pair of stockings and one nat, Of
the said PLAINTIFF OF great value towt TO the value OF
f20, which the said plaintiff then and there wore and
clothed with" f1.
Now this is pretty set of circumsfances-an unac-
countabe catalogue Of outrages all have occurred to
timei III his grieyous complaint be true,
he has been pretty much il not entirely used up-shrt
hat and ALL and the only wonder is that he should have
survived such perfect wreck Of hair, nose, body
and clothes, to be able to come into court at ALI
give but instance: they might be multiplied TO
almost any extent.
In the language of the Commissioner OF Revision in
New York, il may most truly be said" The present
pleadings are many of them, untrue TIE declaration
in is almost always false. The common counts
and general issues in assumpst most generally false
SO are the Of the venue, and the avermens
of time and place in most Of the actions. We need 20
no farther into particulars to show that truth which
ought to be the first essential in the proceedings OF
Of JUSTICE not only disregarded generally but
the disregard Of truth is forced upon the parties by the
alsehoods should be abolished and truth should
be ascertancd by truth alone The peadings, or writ.
statements of the of action defence, should
be required be verified by the affidavit of the party to
the effect that he believes the to be To this
il may be objected that it will often happen that the
party himself does not know enough OF the circumstances
TO be sure, have wellfounded belief, that
the facts which ne true; and that different,
and TO extent contradictory, pleadngs may be-
necessary to him from the danger and conse
quences of variance all which 1t is sufficient an
to say that party having little knowledge OF
his legal rights be unable to make conscientious
of the facts his must be presumed to
have rights all and it is this very class of persons
who, upon enquiry, will lie found To camor the most
loudly for verbosy and falsehood Besides true sys
tenn would abolish great extent could safely
be done the present rules OF varance most Of which
are purely arbitrary and technical.
Speaking of the verifcation Of pleading, the Massa
chusetts Commissioners say: "We cannot think it
reasonable require this Of the parties II they do not