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4.

The answer may contain a denial of the complaint, or Answer. of any part thereof, and also notice in a plain and direct manner, of any facts constituting a defence.a

5.

what to contain.

Pleadings are not required to be in any particular form, Pleadings, but must be such, as to enable a person of common understanding to know what is intended.

6.

Either party may demur to a pleading of his adversary, Demurrer. or any part thereof, when it is not sufficiently explicit to enable him to understand it, or it contains no cause of action or defence, although it be taken as true.

7.

ings on de

If the court deem the objection well founded, it shall Proceedorder the pleading to be amended, and, if the party refuse murrer. to amend, the defective pleading shall be disregarded.

8.

In case a defendant does not appear and answer, the Plaintiff to plaintiff cannot recover, without proving his case.

9.

prove his case, if defendant do not appear.

ings in ac

In an action or defence, founded upon an account or an Proceedinstrument for the payment of money only, it shall be suf

tion on ac

count, or instrument for payment of

ficient for a party to deliver the account or instrument to the court, and to state, that there is due to him thereon money from the adverse party a specified sum, which he claims to recover or set off.

only.

10.

when dis

A variance between the proof on the trial, and the alle- Variance, gations in a pleading, shall be disregarded as immaterial, regarded. unless the court shall be satisfied, that the adverse party has been misled to his prejudice thereby.

Amending

11.

The pleadings may be amended at any time before the trial, pleadings. or during the trial, or upon appeal, when by such amendment Amended substantial justice will be promoted. If the amendment be

1851.

Execution,

made after the joining of the issue, and it be made to appear to the satisfaction of the court, by oath, that an adjournment is necessary to the adverse party in consequence of such amendment, an adjournment shall be granted. The court may also, in its discretion, require as a condition of an amendment the payment of costs to the adverse party.

12.

Execution may be issued on a judgment heretofore or able and hereafter rendered in a justice's court, at any time within

when issu

returnable.

Execution

on justices'

docketed.

five years after the rendition thereof, and shall be returnable sixty days from the date of the same.c

13.

If the judgment be docketed with the county clerk, the judgment execution shall be issued by him to the sheriff of the county, and have the same effect, and be executed in the same manner as other executions and judgments of the county court, except as provided in section 63.

Requiring qarty to

account.

14.

The court may, at the joining of issue, require either exhibit his party, at the request of the other, at that or some other specified time, to exhibit his account on demand, or state the nature thereof as far forth as may be in his power, and in case of his default preclude him from giving evidence of such parts thereof as shall not have been so exhibited or stated.

Certain

15.

[Sec. 57.] The provisions of this act, respecting forms applicable of action, parties to actions, the rules of evidence, and the

provisions

to these

courts.

times of commencing actions, shall apply to these courts.

a All defects in the process are waived by an appearance and answering without objection. Heilner vs. Barras, 3 Code Rep. 17. But see Cornell & Wilbur vs. Smith, 2 Sand. 290, as to assistant justices' courts in NewYork.

b The plaintiff may amend his complaint on an adjourned day, even in a point touching the jurisdiction of the court. Woolley vs. Wilber, 4 Denio, 570.

c The execution may be renewed, on the last day it has to run, so as to retain the lien thereof upon property levied on by the constable, sufficient to satisfy the execution, and which he has on hand for want of bidders. Chapman vs. Fuller and Wark, 7 Barb. 70.

TITLE VII.

Of Justices' and other Inferior Courts in Cities.

CHAPTER I. The marine court of the city of New-York.

II. The justices' courts in the city of New-York.

III. The justices' courts of cities.

IV. General provisions.

CHAPTER I.

The Marine Court of the city of New-York.

SECTION 65. Its jurisdiction.

tion.

§65. [Sec. 58.] The marine court of the city of New-Its jurisdicYork shall have jurisdiction in the following cases, and no other:

1. In actions similar to those in which courts of justices of the peace have jurisdiction, as provided by sections 53 and 54.

2. In an action upon the charter or a by-law of the corporation of the city of New-York, where the penalty or forfeiture shall exceed twenty-five dollars, and not exceed one hundred dollars.

3. In an action between a person belonging to a vessel in the merchant service, and the owner, master or commander thereof, demanding compensation for the performance, or damages for the violation of a contract for services on board such vessel, during a voyage performed, in whole or in part, or intended to be performed, by such

Amended 1849.

vessel, though the sum demanded exceed one hundred dollars.

4. In an action by or against any person belonging to or on board of a vessel in the merchant service, for an assault and battery or false imprisonment, committed on board such vessel, upon the high seas, or in a place without the United States, of which the ordinary courts of law of this state have jurisdiction, though the damages demanded exceed one hundred dollars. But nothing in this or the last preceding subdivision of this section, shall give the court power to proceed in any of the cases therein referred to, as a court of admiralty or maratime jurisdiction.

Their juris

diction.

Amended 1849.

CHAPTER II.

The Justices' Courts, in the city of New-York.

Section 66. Their jurisdiction.

§66. [Sec. 59.] The assistant justices' courts in the city of New-York, shall hereafter be styled the justices' courts in the city of New-York, and shall have jurisdiction in the following cases:

1. In actions similar to those in which justices of the peace have jurisdiction, as provided by sections 53 and 54.

2. In an action upon the charter or a by-law of the corporation of the city of New-York, where the penalty or forfeiture shall not exceed one hundred dollars.

An assistant justice's court, is a court of a justice of the peace, within the meaning of the section of the code which regulates actions on judgments. And an action may be brought on a judgment recovered before the code of procedure took effect, within two years after its rendition. McGuire vs. Gallagher, 2 Sand. 402; S. C. 1 Code Rep. 127. See notes to section sixty. four supra.

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CHAPTER III.

The Justices' Courts of Cities.

SECTION 67. Their Jurisdiction.

diction.

§ 67. [Sec. 60.] The justices' courts of cities, shall have Their jurisjurisdiction in the following cases, and no other:

Amendad

1. In actions similar to those in which justices of the 1849. peace have jurisdiction, as provided by sections 53 and 54.

2. In an action upon the charter or by-laws of the corporations of their respective cities, where the penalty or forfeiture shall not exceed one hundred dollars.

CHAPTER IV.

General Provisions.

SECTION 68. Sections 55 to 64 applied to the courts embraced in this title.

to 64 appli

courts em

this title.

Amended

§ 68. [Sec. 61.] The provisions of sections fifty-five to sixty- Section 55 four, both inclusive, relating to forms of action, to pleadings, to cable to the the times of commencing actions, to the rules of evidence, to filing braced in and docketing transcripts of judgments, to their effect, and the mode of enforcing them, and to proceedings where title to real 1849, 1861.. property shall come in question, shall apply to the courts embraced in this title; except that, after the discontinuance of the actions in the inferior court upon an answer of title, the new action may be brought either in the supreme court, or in any other court having jurisdiction thereof, and except also that in the city and county of New-York, a judgment for twenty-five dollars or over, exclusive of costs, the transcript whereof is docketted in the office of the clerk of that county shall have the same effect as a lien, and be enforced in the same manner as and be deemed a judgment of the court of common pleas for the city and county of New-York.

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