QUALITY. Persons. The state or con dition of a person.
Two contrary qualities cannot be in the same person at the same time. Dig. 41. 10.
4. Every one is presumed to know the quality of the person with whom he is contracting. In the United States the people happily are all upon an equality in their civil rights.
In Pleading. That which distinguishes one thing from another of the same kind.
2. It is, in general, nedessary, when the de claration alleges an injury to the goods and chattels, or any contract relating to them, that the quality should be stated ; and it is also essential, in an action for the recovery of real estate, that its quality should be shovvn: as, whether it consists of houses, lands, or other hereditaments, whether the lands are meadow, pasture, or arable, etc. The same rule requires that, in an action for an injury to real property, the quality should be shown.
Stephen Plead. 214, 215. See, as to the vari ous qualities, Ayliffe, Pand. [60].
3. It is often allowable to omit from the indictment, and it is seldom necessary to prove with precision, allegations of quality, or, in other words, those allegations which describe the mode in which certain acts have been done. Thus, if the charge is of a felonious assault with a staff, mid the proof is of such an assault with a stone, or if a wound, alleged to have been given with a sword, is proved to have been inflicted by an axe, or if a pistol is stated to have been loaded with a bullet, and it turns out to have been loaded with some other destructive mate rial, the charge is substantially proved, and no variance occurs. 1 East, Pl. Cr. 341 ; 5 Carr. & P. 128 ; 9 id. 525, 548.