Court Opinion

ID: 5436306
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2022-01-08 17:54:49.662257+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:31:51.101615
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Sanderson delivered the following concurring opinion,
in which Mr. Justice Rhodes concurred :
If the question presented by the record in this case was new, I should be inclined to hold the complaint bad, upon the ground that it does not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action. Notwithstanding the many decisions to the contrary, I have never been able to regard the common counts as consistent with our code of practice, which was intended to provide a uniform mode of pleading in all cases. The fundamental rule in our system of pleading requires a statement of the facts constituting the cause of action or defense in ordinary and concise language, so that the precise matters intended may appear upon the face of the pleading, and the *176opposite party need not be put upon his outside knowledge for the purpose of ascertaining what is meant. I do not think the common counts satisfy this rule, and must regard their retention as impairing the symmetry of our system; but a contrary view was adopted at the outset and has been uniformly adhered to since. The matter is not of sufficient importance to justify us in disturbing a rule so long settled. For these reasons I concur in the judgment.