SURPLUSAGE. In Accounts. A greater disbursement than the charges amount to. A balance over. 1 Lew. 219.
In Pleading. Allegations of matter wholly foreign and impertinent to the cause. All matter beyond the circumstances necessary to constitute the action is surplusage. Cowp. 683: 5 East, 275 ; 10 id. 205 ; 2 Johns. Cas. N. Y. 52; 1 Mas. C. C. 57 ; 16 Tex. 656. Generally, matter of surplusage will be re jected and will not be allowed to vitiate the pleading, Coke, Litt. 303 b ; 2 Saund. 306, n. 14 ; 7 Johns. N. Y. 462 ; 13 id. 80 ; 3 Dougl. 472; 1 Root, Conn. 456 ; 1 Pet. 18 ; 2 Mass. 283 ; 8 Serg. & R. Penn. 124; 1 Pet. 18 ; 1 Ala. 326 ; I Hempst. Ark. 221; 21 N. H. 535, as new and needless matter stated in an innuendo, 9 East, 95 ; 7 Johns. N. Y. 272, even if repugnant to what precedes, 10 East, 142 ; see 16 'Tex. 656 ; but if it shows that the plaintiff has no cause of action, demur rer wilI lie. 1 Salk. 363 ; 3 Taunt. 139 ; 2 East, 451 ; 4 id. 400 ; Dougl. 687; 2 W. Blackstone, 842; 3 Cranch, 193 ; 2 Dail. 300; 1 Wash. C. C. 257. Where the whole of an allegation is immaterial to the plaintiff's right of action, it may be struck out as sur iplusage. 1 Mas. C. C.57. Matter laid under a videlicet, inconsistent with what precedes, may be rejected as surplusage, 4 Johns. N.
Y. 450; 2 Blackf. Ind. 143 ; and when the unnecessary matter is so connected with what is material that it cannot be separated, the Whole matter may be included in the traverse, Dy. 365 ; 2 Saund. 206 a, n. 21-24 ; and the Whole must be proved as laid. 1 Ohio, 483 ; 1 Brev. No. C. 11.
Sl7RPRISE. /n Equity Practice. The act by which a party who is entering into a contract, is taken unawares, by which sudden confusion or perplexity is created, which ren ders it proper that court of equity should relieve the party so surprised. 2 Brown, Ch. 150 ; 1 Story, Eq. Jur. 120, note.
The situation in which a party is placed, without any default of his own, which will be injurious to his interests. 8 Mart. La.
s. 407.
Mr. Jeremy, Eq. Jnr. 3136, 383, note, seems to think that the word surprise is a technical expree sion, and nearly synonymous with fraud. It is sometimes used in this sense when it is deemed prestimptive of, or approaching to, fraud. 1 Fon blanqiie, Eq. 123; 3 Chain. Cas. 68, 74, 103, 114. See 6 Vas. Ch. 327, 338 ; 16 id. 81, 86, 87 ; 2 Brown, Ch. 326; 1 Cox, Ch. 340.