PLEADING IN EQUITY. The following remarks may serve to show how far Pleadings in Equity differ from Pleadings at Law, from which they are derived ; and they may be taken as supplemental to the article EQUITY, in which a reference is made to this article.
The Answer in Equity differs materially from the answer at Law, in being upon oath, except in the case of persona who have privilege of peerage, or are Quakers or Moravian., and in the case of a corporation ; and the plaintiff may use the whole of the defendant's answer as evidence against him at the hearing of the cause, or such integral part of it as he may think proper. He may also, by means of the admissions contained in the answer, obtain the inspection of books, papers, and writings in the defendant's possession, which support his (the plaintiff's) claim, and be may use them as evidence at the hearing of the cause. The defendant, except on the question of costs, can make no use of his own answer, further than as showing what his defence is ; and he must support this defence by evidence, just in the same way as the plaintiff must prove those parts of his case which he cannot prove by the admissions in the defendant's answer. Any number of plaintiffs may join in a suit, if they have all a common interest, however unequal in value, in the subject-matter of the suit ; and a common interest means such a legal or equitable title to the subject-matter of the suit, or to some part of it, as will entitle them to a decree which shall affect the defendants. All the plaintiffs in a suit are considered one, as appears from the general rule that a suit is abated by the death of a plaintiff or the marriage of a female plaintiff; and also from the rule that a Person who has no interest in the subject of the suit cannot join as a plaintiff with one who has. But the suit is a different suit against each defendant, for each defendant may answer separately to the bill ; and no defendant is affected in any way by the answer of a co-defendant.
If a defendant dies, the suit abates as to him, but continues as to the other defendants, though it is nearly always necessary to restore the integrity of the suit by making the personal representative or the heir at law of the deceased defendant a party to it.
The writ of Subpoena was until recently the original process by which a party VMS brought before the court. This writ required the person to whom it was addressed to appear and answer "upon pain of an attachment issuing against his person, and such other process for contempt as the court should award." Those who had privilege of peerage were required to appear and answer by a Letter Missive from the lord chancellor. The act 15 & 16. Viet. c. 86, substitutes the service of a copy of the bill upon the defendant for the old process.
The bill is briefly and sufficiently defined to be "a declaration in writing, showing the plaintifes griefe, and the wrong which he supe. seth to bee done unto him by the defendant, and what damages he sustaineth by occasion thereof, praying process against him for redresse of the same." (West, 'Simboleography,' I94, ed. 1622.) "And first the matter of every bill ought to be true. Secondarily, the same matter ought to be laid down therein plainly and certainly in every circumstance of the thing, person, time, place, manner of doing, and other accidents. And thirdly, the same ought to be sufficient in law, both for the forme thereof, and for the matter, that it be such as is examinable in this court ; which being otherwise, may be dismissed thence." (Peet.) A bill then Is a declaration in writing of a complainant, or of several complainants who have such a common interest as may form the subject of one suit. Like a declaration at law, it contains the claim of the plaintiff and the grounds thereof. In form it is, as already observed, a petition or supplication : as it commences with words of supplication, so it concludes with a prayer for relief.