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Confession And Avoidance - Law Dictionary Search Results

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confession and avoidance

confession and avoidance : a common-law plea in which a party confesses an allegation but alleges additional facts to avoid the intended legal effect of the original allegation compare demurrer ...


Confession and avoidance, plea of

Confession and avoidance, plea of, a plea in bar, admitting the facts alleged in the declaration to be true, but showing some new facts, tending to obviate their legal effect. All matters in confession and avoidance had before the Judicature Acts to be specially pleaded (Reg. Gen. H.T. 1853, r. 8), and must be so still under the present system of pleading. See STATEMENT OF DEFENCE; CIR-CUITY OF ACTION....


avoid

avoid [modification of Old French esvuider to destroy, literally, to empty, from es- out + vuider to empty] 1 : to make void or undo : annul [the trustee may any transfer of interest of the debtor in property "U.S. Code"] 2 : to respond to (an allegation or averment) by declaring that facts alleged do not result in liability [averments in a pleading to which no responsive pleading is required or permitted shall be taken as denied or ed "Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 8(d)"] see also confession and avoidance compare deny 3 : to prevent the occurrence of or responsibility for esp. through lawful means [ a tax] compare evade avoid·abil·i·ty n avoid·able adj avoid·ance n ...


Avoidance

Avoidance [fr. vuide, vide, Fr., empty, void, free from], when a benefice is void of an incumbent, in which sense it is opposed to plenarty, Jac. Law Dict. Also the meeting, by new matter, of an opponent's pleading. See CONFESSION AND AVOIDANCE...


Bar, plea in

Bar, plea in, a pleading showing some ground for barring or defeating an action at Common Law. A plea in bar was therefore distinguished from all pleas of the dilatory class, as impugning the right of action altogether, instead of merely tending to divert the proceedings to another jurisdiction, or suspend them, or abate the particular writ or declaration. It was, in short, a substantial and conclusive answer to the action. It followed from this property, that, in general, it must either deny all, or some essential part of, the averments of fact in the declaration, or, admitting them to be true, allege new facts which obviated or repelled their legal effect. In the first case the defendant was said, in the language of pleading, to traverse the matter of the declaration; in the latter, to confess and avoid it. Pleas in bar were consequently divided into (1) pleas by way of traverse, and (2) pleas by confession and avoidance.In Equity, a plea in bar was a defence resorted to when there w...


Colour

Colour, a term of the ancient rhetoricians, and early adopted into the language of pleading. It was an apparent or prima facie right; and the meaning of the rule, that pleadings in confession and avoidance should give colour, was that they should confess the matter adversely alleged, to such an extent, atleast, as to admit some apparent right in the opposite party, which required to be encountered and avoided by the allegation of new matter colour was either express, i.e., inserted in the pleading, or implied, which was naturally inherent in the structure of the pleading, Steph. Plead. 233. Express colour was abolished by (English) C.L.P. Act, 1852, s. 64....


Confession

Confession, a statement in order to amount to a 'confession' must either admit in terms the offence, or at any rate substantially all the facts which constitute the offence. An admission of an incriminating fact, howsoever grave, is not byitself a confession. A statement which contains an exculpatory assertion of some fact, which if true, would negative the offence alleged cannot amount to a confession, Veera Ibrahim v. State of Maharashtra, (1976) 2 SCC 302: AIR 1976 SC 1167 (1171): (1967) 3 SCR 672. [Evidence Act (1 of 1987), s. 24]'Confession' in common acceptation means and implies acknowledgment of guilt--its evidentiary value and its acceptability however shall have to be assessed by the Court having due regard to the credibility of the witnesses. In the event, however, the Court is otherwise in a position having due regard to the attending circumstances believes the witness before whom the confession is made and is otherwise satisfied that the confession is in fact voluntary and...


confession

confession 1 : an act of confessing 2 : an acknowledgment of a fact or allegation as true or proven ;esp : a written or oral statement by an accused party acknowledging the party's guilt (as by admitting commission of a crime) compare admission declaration against interest at declaration, self-incrimination NOTE: Courts differ on how a confession establishes the accused's guilt; for example, in some jurisdictions the confession has to establish all the necessary elements of the crime. In order to be admissible as evidence, a confession must be voluntary. A guilty plea is considered a judicial confession. ...


demurrer

demurrer [Anglo-French, from demurrer to file a demurrer, literally, to stay, dwell, delay, from Old French demorer, from Latin demorari to delay] : a plea in response to an allegation (as in a complaint or indictment) that admits its truth but also asserts that it is not sufficient as a cause of action compare confession and avoidance NOTE: Demurrers are no longer used in federal civil or criminal procedure but are still used in some states. General demurrers are replaced in the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure by motions to dismiss for failure to state a claim on which relief may be granted. Special demurrers are replaced by motions for more definite statement. In the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, a motion to dismiss or to grant appropriate relief takes the place of a demurrer. Demurrers are sometimes used to question a court's jurisdiction. demurrer to the evidence : a demurrer that asserts that the evidence is not sufficient to create a question of fact for the jury to...


Son assault demesne

Son assault demesne, a justification in an action of assault and battery, on the ground that the plaintiff made the first assault, and what the defendant did was in his own defence. it was a plea by confession and avoidance, 1 Selw. N.P., 13th Edn. 2. See now PLEADING; STATEMENT OF DEFENCE....


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