McCloskey v. Barr

Citations

• 38 F. 165
• 6 Ohio F. Dec. 447
• 1889 U.S. App. LEXIS 2802

Syllabus

<p>1. Equity — Pleading—Separate Pleas — Fileno without Leave.</p> <p>ft is not usual, nor in conformity with proper practice, for a defendant, without previous special leave of' court, to file several separate pleas, or to present several distinct and independent defenses in one plea; the object of a plea being to reduce the cause, or some distinct part of it, to a single issne.</p> <p>2. Same — Pleas—Requisites.</p> <p>The rules of equity pleading require that the averments of a plea in bar shall be so clear, positive, and distinct as to render the plea a complete equitable and legal bar, and enable the complainant to take issne upon its validity.</p> <p>3. Same — Setting Down Plea por Argument.</p> <p>While the act of the complainants in setting down a plea for argument, instead of replying to it, operates as an admission of the facts therein alleged, which are well pleaded, yet, in deciding upon the validity of the plea, the bill, so far as it remains uncontradicted, is assumed to he true.</p> <p>4. Same — Averments op Title.</p> <p>A plea that defendant is “the sole owner in fee-simple” of the property described in the bill, without stating any facts from which the court can see whether defendant is the owner in fee or not, is bad.</p> <p>5. Same — Adverse Possession.</p> <p>A plea “that at the time of the bringing of this suit, and long prior thereto, this defendant was, and still is,, in the open, notorious, continuous, and exclusive possession of the said premises as the sole owner thereof, and claiming and holding adversely to the complainants and the whole world, ” is bad, in that it consists of conclusions of law.</p> <p>6. Same — Statute op Limitations.</p> <p>A plea of the statute of limitations to a bill for partition, which does not negative the fact alleged in the bill that certain of the complainants were under disability when their rights of possession accrued, and have so continued, is bad.</p> <p>7. Same — Ouster and Disseisin. . •</p> <p>. A ple