Case Name: The Stockbridge Iron Company agt. Mellen and others
Court: New York Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: New York
Decision Date: 1851-03
Citations: 5 How. Pr. 439
Docket Number: 
Parties: The Stockbridge Iron Company agt. Mellen and others.
Judges: 
Reporter: Howard's Practice Reports
Volume: 5
Pages: 439–440

Head Matter:
SUPREME COURT.
The Stockbridge Iron Company agt. Mellen and others.
A complaint containing six counts, or causes of action (similar to a declaration under the former practice, against a common carrier), held, to be a pleading inconsistent with the requirements of the Code (§143). All but one count stricken out as redundant.
Albany Special Term,
March 1851.
Motion to set aside complaint, or to strike out redundant matter. The action is brought to recover the value of a quantity of iron delivered by the plaintiffs to the defendants to be carried from Hudson to Cold Spring. The complaint contains six different counts, or causes of action,, stated, substantially, according to the forms of counts in a declaration at common law, in an action against common carriers. The defendants move either to set aside the complaint altogether, or to strike out all but one of the counts.
E. P. Cowles, for Defendants.
K. Miller, for Plaintiffs.

Opinion:
Harris, Justice.
The complaint in this action is in form and effect a declaration at common law: one, too, of the most objectionable description. To sustain such a pleading, would be to hold that any party is at liberty to choose between common law pleadings, and the pleadings prescribed by the Code. If a pie ad ing like this, is sanctioned by the Code, then, indeed, it is a misnomer to call that act, " an act to simplify and abridge plead ings. The complaint is in no respect conformable to the requirements of the second subdivision of the 142d section of the Code. Unless, therefore, the plaintiffs shall, within twenty days amend their complaint so as to make it conform to those requirements, all the causes of action, or counts, stated therein, except the first, are to be stricken out as redundant, or irrelevant. The defendants are also entitled to the costs of this motion.