COURT OF PLEAS. In Ameri can Law. A court of original and general jurisdiction for the trial of issues of fact and law according to the principles of the common law.
Courts of this name exist in some of the states of the United States, and frequently have a criminal as well as civil jurisdiction. They are, in general, courts of record, being expressly made so by statute in Pennsyl vania, April 14, 1834, § 18. In Pennsylvania they exercise an equity jurisdiction also, as well as that at common law. Courts of sub stantially similar powers to those indicated in the definition exist in all the states, un der various names.
In English Law. Formerly one of the three superior courts of common law at Westminster.
This court, which is sometimes called, also, Ban cue Communis, Bancus, and Common Bench, was a branch of the curia regis. At the end of John's reign there was a separation between the court which sat at a certain place to hear common pleas and the court which followed the king with juris diction both over common pleas and pleas of the crown. There were not as yet two distinct bodies of judges. There is a reported case in 1237 which shows, that the distinction was well recognized. In 1272 there was a chief justice of the common pleaa, and from that date it may he said that the separa tion was complete. The common pleas was inferior to the court which followed the king, since error lay from it to his court. Magna Carta provided that it should sit at some fixed place, which was usually Westminster. 1 Holdsw. Hist. E. L. 74. The establishment of this court at Westminster, and the consequent 'construction of the Inns of Court and gathering together of the common-law lawyers, enabled the law itself to withstand the attacks of the canonists and civilians. It derived its name from the fact that the causes of common people were heard there. It had exclusive jurisdic
tion of real actions as long as those actions were in use, and had also an extensive and, for a long time, exclusive jurisdiction of all actions between subjects. This latter jurisdiction, however, was gradually en croached upon by the king's bench and exchequer, with which it afterwards had a concurrent juris diction in many matters. 'Formerly none but ser jeants at law were admitted to practise before this court in bane. See SERJEANTS-AT-LAW. Its judges were always serjeants-at-law.
It consisted of a chief justice and four puisne or associate justices.
It had a civil, common-law jurisdiction, concurrent with the king's bench and ex chequer, of personal actions and actions of ejectment, and a peculiar or exclusive juris diction of real actions, actions under the Railway and Canal Traffic Act, 17 & 18 Viet. c. 31, the registration of judgments, annui ties, etc., 1 & 2 Vict. c. 110; 2 & 3 Vict. c. 11; 3 & 4 Vict. c. 82 ; 18 Vict. c. 15; respecting fees for conveyances under 3 & 4 Will. IV. c. 74; the examination of married women concerning their conveyances; 11 & 12 Vict. c. 70; 17 & 18 Vict. c. 75; 19 & 20 Vict. c. 108, § 73; and of appeals from the revising barristers' court ; 6 & 7 Vict. c. 18. Whart. Law Diet.
Appeals formerly lay from this court to the King's Bench ; and by statutes 11 Geo. IV. and 1 Win. IV. c. 70, writs of error were afterwards taken to the King's Bench and Exchequer Chamber, from whose judg ment an appeal lay to the House of Lords. 3 Bla. Corn. 40.
Its jurisdiction has been transferred to the High Court of Justice. See COURTS OP ENGLAND.