Corry v. Pennsylvania Railroad

Citations

• 194 Pa. 516
• 45 A. 341
• 1900 Pa. LEXIS 428

Syllabus

<p>Assumpsit — Action ex delicto — Affidavit of defense — Practice, O. P. — Act of May 25, 1887. .</p> <p>Under the Act of May 25, 1887, P. L. 272, the legislature intended to confine the remedy by judgment for want of an affidavit of defense to actions ex contractu alone, as they were before the act was passed, and not to extend this remedy to actions ex delicto, or in their nature ex delicto.</p> <p>The cause of action under a statement alleging that plaintiff, intending to become a passenger, sent her trunk to defendant’s station, and that defendant so negligently and carelessly kept it, that, before her arrival to pay her fare and take her journey, it was rifled of its contents, is for the negligent and careless keeping of the trunk before plaintiff became a passenger, the remedy for which would be an action on the case for damages for negligence, which is essentially an action ex delicto, as well since as before the passage of the act of May 25,1887, which only assumes to group together into an action of assumpsit those demands arising ex contractu which were theretofore “recoverable in debt, assumpsit or covenant,” and all actions of trespass, trover and trespass on the case into one action, “ to be called an action of trespass.”</p> <p>Under the act of May 25, 1887, the actions of assumpsit for which judgment may be taken for want of an affidavit of defense are limited to such as are founded on contract alone, and do not include cases in which the cause of action is ex delicto, or of a mixed character of contract and tort.</p> <p>It was the intention of the legislature to limit the remedy by judgment for want of an affidavit of defense to causes of action which were either actually in writing, or contracts, the whole details of which could be plainly set down in writing, with particular terms and limitations, so that a liability for the payment of a definite sum of money could be expressed. Per Green, C. J.</p>