PLEA. In Equity. A special answer showing. or relying upon one or more things as a cause why the suit should be either dis missed, or delayed, or barred. Mitford, Eq. Plead. Jeremy ed. 219 • Cooper, Eq. Plead. 223 ; Story, Eq. Plead. '0 649.
2. The modes of making defence to a bill in equity are said to be by demurrer, which demands of the court whether from the mat ter apparent from the bill the defendant shall answer at all • by plea, which, resting on the foundation of' new matter offered, demands whether the defendant shall answer further ; by answer, which responds generally to the charges of the bill ; by disclaimer, which denies any interest in the matters in question. Mitford, Eq. Plead. Jeremy ed. 13 ; 2 Stor.
C. C. 59 ; Story, Eq. Plead. 0 437. Pleas are said to be pure which rely upon foreign mat ter to discharge or stay the suit, and ano malous or negative which consist mainly of denials of the substantial matters set forth in the bill. Story, Eq. Plead. 651, 667; 2 Daniell, Chanc. Pract. 97, 110 ; Beames, Eq. Pl. 123 ; Adams, Eq. 236.
Pleas to the jurisdiction assert that the court before which the cause is brougbt is not the proper court to take cognizance of the matter.
3. Pleas to the person may be to the per son of the plaintiff or defendant. Those of the former class are mainly outlawry, excom munication, popi,sh recusant convict, which are never pleaded in America and very.rarely now in England ; attainder, which is now seldom pleaded, 2 Atk. Ch. 399 ; ctlienage, which is not a disability unless the matter respect lands, when the alien may not hold them, or he lie an alien enemy not under license, 2 Ves. & B. Ch. Ir. 323 ; infancy, °over ture, and idiocy, which are pleadable as at law (see ABATEMENT) • bankruptcy and insol vency, in which case ah the facts necessary to establish the plaintiff as a legally declared bankrupt must be set forth, 3 1VIer. Ch. 667, though riot necessarily' as of the defendant's own knowledge, Younge, Ch. 331 ; 4 Beav. Rolls, 554 ; 1 Younge & C. Ch. 39 ; want of character in which he sues, as that he is not an administrator, 2 Dick, Ch. 510 ; 1 Cox, Ch. 198 ; is not heir, 2 Yes. & B. Ch. Ir. 159 ; 2 Brown, Ch. 143 ; 3 id. 489 ; is not a creditor, 2 Sim. & S. Ch. 274 ; is not a partner, 6 Madd.
Ch. 61, as he pretends to be ; that the plain tiff named is a fictitious person, or was dead at the commencement of the suit. Story, Eq. Plead. 0 727. Those to the person of the de fendant may show that the defendant is not the person he is alleged to be, or does not sustain the character given by the bill, 6 Madd. Ch. 61 ; Rep. temp. Finch, 334, or that he is bankrupt, to require the assignees to be joined. Story, Eq. Plead. 0 732. These pleas to the person are pleas in abatement, or, at least, in the nature of pleas in abate ment.
4. Pleas to the bill or the frame of the bill object to the suit as framed, or contend that it is unnecessary. These may be--the pend.ency of another suit, which is analogous to the same plea at law and is governed in most re spects by the same principles, Story, Eq. Plead. 0 736 ; 2 Mylne & C. 602 ; 1 Phill. Ch. 82 ; 1 Ves. Ch. 544 ; 4 id. 357 ; 1 Sim. & S. Ch. 491 ; Mitford, Eq. Plead. Jeremy ed. 248 ; see Lis PENDENS ; and the other suit must be in equity, and not at law, Beames, Eq. Plead. 146-148 ; want of proper parties, • which goes to both discovery and relief, where both are prayed for, Story, Eq. Plead. 0 745 ; see 3 Younge & C. Ch. 447, but not to a bill of discovery merely, 2 Paige, Ch. N. Y. 280; 3 id. 222 ; 3 Cranch, 220 ; a multiplicity of suits, 1 P. Will. Ch. 428 ; 2 Mas. C. C. 190; multifariousness, which should be taken by way of demurrer, when the joining or con fession of the distinct matters appears from the face of the bill, as it usually does. Story, Eq. Plead. 0 271.
Pleas in bar rely upon a bar created statute : as, the Statute of Limitations, 1 Sim. 8-, S. Ch. 4; 2 Sim Ch. 45 ; 3 Sumn. C. C. 152 ; which is a good plea in equity as well as at law, and with similar exceptions, Cooper, Eq. Plead. 253 ; see LIMITATIONS, STATUTE OF ; the Statute of Frauds, where its pro visions apply, 1 Johns. Ch. N. Y. 425 ; 2-id. 275 ; 4 Ves. Ch. 24, 720 ; 2 Brown, Ch. 559 ; or some other public or private statute, 2 Story, Eq. Jur. 0 768 ; matter of record or as of record in some court, as, a comnion re covery, 1 P. Will. 754 ; 2 Freem. Ch. 180 ; 1 Vern. Ch. 13 ; a judgment at law, 1 Keen, 456 ; 2 Mylne & C. Ch. 602 ; Story, Eq. Plead.