1 781, n.; the sentence or judgment of a foreign court or a court not of record, 12 Clark & F. Hon. L. 368 ; 14 Sim. Ch. 265; 3 Hare, Ch. 100 ; 1 Younge & C. Ch. 464, especially where its jurisdiction is of a pe culiar or exclusive nature, 12 Ves. Ch. 307; Ambl. Ch. 756 ; 2 How. 619, with limitations in case of fraud, 1 Ves. Ch. 284 ; Story, Eq. Plead. 0 788, or a decree of the same or another court of equity, Cas. temp. Talb. 217; 7 Johns. Ch. N. Y. 1 ; 2 Sim. & S. Ch. 464 ; 2 Younge & C. Ch. 43 ; matters purely in pais, in which case the pleas may go to discovery, relief, or either, both, or a part of either, of which the principal (though not the only) pleas are: account, stated or settled, 2 Atk. Ch. 1 ; 13 Price, Exch. 767 ; 7 Paige, Ch. N. Y. 573 ; 1 Mylue & K. 231 ; accord and satis faction, 1 Hale, Ch. 564 ; award, 2 Ves. & B. Ch. Ir. 764 ; purchase for valuable considera tion, 2 Sumn. C. C. 507 ; 2 Younge & C. Ch. 457; release, 3 P. Will. 315 ; lapse of time, analogous to the Statute of Limitations, 1 Ves. Ch. 264; 10 ic/. 466 ; 1 Younge & C. Ch. 432, 453; 2 Jac. & W. Ch. 1 ; 1 Hare Ch. 594; 1 Russ. & M. Ch. 453; 2 Younge '& C. Ch. 58; 1 Johns. Ch. N. Y. 46 ; 10 Wheat. 152 ; 1 Schoales & L. Ir. Ch. 721 ; 6 Medd. Ch. 61 ; 3 Paige, Ch. N. Y. 273 ; 5 id. 26 ; 7 id. 62 ; title in the defendant. Story, Eq. Plead. I 812.
5. The same pleas may be made to bills seeking discovery as to those seeking relief ; but matter which constitutes a good plea to a bill for relief does not necessarily to a bill for discovery merely. See Story, Eq. Plead. 816 ; Mitford, Eq. Plead. Jeremy ed. 281, 282. The same kind of pleas may be made to bills not original as to original bills, in many cases, according to their respective natures. Peculiar defences to each may, however, be sometimes urged by plea. Story, Eq. Plead. 826 ; Mitford, Eq. Plead. Jeremy ed. 288.
Effect of a plea. A plea may extend to the whole or a yart, and if to a part only must express which part, and an answer over rules a plea if the two conflict. 3 Younge & C. Ch. 683 ; 3 Cranch, 220. The plea may be accompanied by an answer fortifying it with a protest against waiver of the plea thereby. Story, Eq. Plead. 695. A plea or argument may be allowed, in which case it is a full bar to so much of the bill as it covers, if true, Mitford, Eq. Plead. Jeremy ed. 301 •, or the benefit of it may be saved t,o the hearing, which decides it valid so far as then appears, but allows matter to be disclosed in evidence to invalidate it, or it may be ordered to stand for an answer, which decides that it may be a part of a defence, 4 Paige, Ch. N. Y. 124, but is not a full defence, that the matter has been improperly offered as a plea, or is not sufficienfly fortified by answer, so that the truth i.E1 apparent. 3 Paige, Ch. N. Y. 459. See, generally, Story, Eq. Plead.• Mitford, Eq. Plead. by Jeremy ; Beames, Eq. Plead.; Cooper, Eq. Plead.; Blake, Chanc. Pract.; Daniell, Chanc. Pract. ; Barbour, Chanc. Pract.; Bouvier, Inst.
At Law. The defendant's answer by mat ter of fact to the plaintiff's declaration, as distinguished from a demurrer, which is an answer by matter of law.
6. It includes as well the denial of the truth of the allegatians on which the plaintiff relies, as the statement of facts on which the defendant re lies. In an ancient use it denoted action, and la still used sametimee in that sense : as, " sum moned to answer in a plea of trespass." Stephen,
Plead. 38, 39, n.; Warren, Law Stud. 272, note w ; Oliver, Prec. 97. In a popular, and not legal, sense, tbe ward is used to denote a farensic argument. It was strictly applicable in a kindred sense when the pleadings were conducted orally by the counsel. Stephen, Plead. App. n. 1.
Pleas are either dilatory, which tend to defeat the particular action to which they apply on account of its being brought before the wrong court by or against the wrong per son or in an improper form, or peremptory, which impugn the right of action altogether, which answer the plaintiff's allegations of right conclusively. Pleas are also said to be to the jurisdiction of the court, in suspension of the action, in abatement of the writ, in bar of the action. The first three classes are dilatory, the last peremptory. Stephen, Plead. 63 ; 1 Chitty, Plead. 425 ; Lawes, Plead. 36.
Pleas are of various kinds.. In abatement. See ABATEMENT. In avoidance, called, also, confession and avoidance, which admits, in words or in effect, the truth of the matters contained in the declaration, and alleges some new matter to avoid the effect of it and show that the plaintiff is, notwithstanding, not en titled to his action. 1 Chitty, Plead. 540 ; Lewes, Plead. 122. Every allegation made in the pleadings subsequent to the declara tion which does not go in denial of what is before alleged on the other side is an allega tion of new matter. Gould, Plead. ch. iii. 195.
7. Pleas in bar deny that the plaintiff has any cause of action. 1 Chitty, Plead. 407 ; Coke, Litt. 303 b. They either conclude the plaintiff by matter of estoppel, show that he never had any cause of action, or, admitting that he had, insist that it is determined by some subsequent 'natter. 1 Chitty, Plead. 407 ; Stephen, Plead. 70 ; Britt. 92. They either deny all or some essential part of the averments in the declaration, in which case they are said to traverse it, or, admitting them to be true, allege new facts which obviate and repel their legal effect, in which case they are said to confess and avoid. Stephen, Plead. 70. The term is often used in a re stricted sense to denote what are with pro priety called special pleas in bar. These pleas are of two kinds: the general issue, and special pleas in bar. The general issue denies or takes issue upon all the material allega tions of the declaration, thus compelling the plaintiff to prove all of them that are essen tial to support his action. There is, however, a plea to the action which is not strictly either a general issue or a special plea in bar, and which is called a special isstte, which denies only some particular part of the declaration which goes to the gist of the action. It thus, on the one hand, denies less than does the general issue, and, ou the other hand, is distinguished from a " special plea in bar" in this,—that the latter univer sally advances new matter, upon which the defendant relies for his defence, which a special issue never does ; it simply denies. Lewes, Plead. 110, 112, 113, 145 ; Coke, Litt. 126 a ; Gould, Plead. ch. ii. 38, ch. vi. 8. The matter which ought to be so pleaded is now very generally given in evidence under the general issue. 1 Chitty, Plead. 415.