Case Name: Demeritt and Wife v. Mills and Wife
Court: New Hampshire Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: New Hampshire
Decision Date: 1879-06
Citations: 59 N.H. 18
Docket Number: 
Parties: Demeritt and Wife v. Mills and Wife.
Judges: Smith, J., did not sit: the others concurred.
Reporter: New Hampshire Reports
Volume: 59
Pages: 18–18

Head Matter:
Demeritt and Wife v. Mills and Wife.
Judgment will not be arrested for misjoinder of parties, but such misjoinder may be cured by amendment where justice requires it.
Case, for slander of the wife by the wife. Facts found by a referee. The plaintiffs were husband and wife, and the defendants were husband and wife. The alleged slanderous words were uttered by the defendant wife, in the absence and without the knowledge of the husband. The referee found the defendants guilty, and awarded the plaintiffs damages. The defendants moved in arrest of judgment for misjoinder.
A. It. Hatch, for the defendants.
Wiggin fernald, for the plaintiffs.

Opinion:
Stanley, J.
The husbands were improperly joined. Harris v. Webster, 58 N. H. 481. The misjoinder was apparent from the writ, and might have been taken advantage of by plea, motion to quash, or demurrer. Ch. Pl. *12, 13, 20, 22, 452; Eames v. Carlisle, 3 N. H. 130; Crawford v. Crawford, 44 N. H. 428. Whether this objection should have been taken within the time limited for filing pleas in abatement we need not now decide, for the defect was one which, if taken at any time before judgment, could be cured by amendment — Gen. St., c. 207, ss. 8 and 9; and, as it is manifest the misjoinder could not have affected the trial on the merits, the amendment may now be made without terms, and the plaintiff then have judgment.
Motion denied.
Smith, J., did not sit: the others concurred.