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The plaintiff's declaration was the initial pleading in most common-law actions. (The abbreviated term for the declaration was "narr.," from the Latin narratio.) The declaration was drawn up by the plaintiff's attorney after the defendant had been arrested by a writ of capias ad respondendum. (After 1829 the writ of capias was optional in most types of actions.) The declaration contains the following parts: caption (name of the court and the term in which the writ of capias was to be returned); venue (county from which the jury was to come if the case proceeded to trial); commencement (names of the plaintiff and defendant and of the plaintiffs attorney, manner of defendant's appearance, and a brief statement of the cause of action); a detailed "declaration" of the cause of action; and conclusion (demand for payment of debt or damages). The statement of the cause of action relates the grounds for the plaintiff's claim. It alleges exactly when, where, and how the plaintiff obtained the credit, sustained the damages, or otherwise became entitled to a court award. The conclusion might contain several separate counts, each stating the plaintiff's title to the thing demanded, whether it be performance of a contract, recovery of real or personal property, or compensation for injury to himself or his property. (The counts each could be the ground for a separate action but were grouped together for convenience.) Printed forms were often used for common types of actions (e.g., trespass on the case and assumpsit).
Following the declaration is found the oyer, a copy of a promissory note or other written obligation sued upon. The notice of the rule to plead usually appears on the dorso of the declaration. The notice informs the defendant that a rule has been entered in the common rule book kept by the clerk of the Supreme Court, ordering him to plead within twenty days of service of the declaration. (After 1837 the notice was required only in cases commenced by service of the declaration.) The sheriffs affidavit of service or nonservice of the declaration and notice is appended or attached to the declaration. Statutory provisions concerning declarations appear in Revised Statutes of 1829, Part III, Chap. 6., Titles 1-2.
Filed with the declarations are subsequent pleadings by defendants and plaintiffs, and determinations of the amounts of damages to be awarded. (Some of the series also contain motion papers, described in detail on p. 39 ff.) Various pleas might be made following the declaration. When a defendant pleaded the general issue and denied the injury, he had to enter the plea appropriate to the form of action. Examples of pleas were "not guilty," in actions of trespass, trespass on the case, and trover; non assumpsit, in actions of assumpsit; nil debet, in actions of debt. The defendant's plea sometimes contains more details about the dispute than does the plaintiff's declaration. Special pleadings, found occasionally in these series, are called the replication (plaintiff's reply to defendant's plea) and rejoinder (defendant's reply to replication). Other special pleadings are rarely, if ever, found. The purpose of pleading was to reach a point where an issue was joined, that is, defined precisely enough so that a jury could determine the facts. After joinder of issue, the plaintiffs attorney made up a copy of all the pleadings and sent it to a circuit court for trial. (See Copies of Pleadings Furnished to Trial Courts, p. 29 ff.)
The various series of declarations also contain many cognovits and demurrers. The cognovit is the defendant's confession of the facts alleged in the plaintiffs declaration. The demurrer is one party's formal objection to the sufficiency in law of the opposing party's pleading, regardless of the facts of the case. If the opposing party did not move successfully to quash a demurrer, the court ruled on the point of law. Other documents commonly filed with the declarations are court clerks' reports of damages to be awarded to plaintiffs, and reports of referees appointed to determine the amount of debtor damages due in complicated financial cases. There are also writs of inquiry directing a sheriff to empanel a jury to assess damages due to a plaintiff who had been awarded interlocutory judgment upon the defendant's default, demurrer, or confession. (The return attached to the writ of inquiry is called the inquisition.) For fuller descriptions of some of these documents see J0004 Cognovits (Geneva); J0027 Writs of Inquiry and Inquisitions (Geneva); and J0006 Reports of Referees (Geneva).
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| J0015 |
Declarations (Albany), 1838-47. 126 cu.ft.
The Albany declarations are arranged alphabetically by first letter of last name of the plaintiffs attorney, then bundled chronologically by month and day of filing. Declarations filed prior to 1838 are found in J0011 Motions and Declarations (Albany). There is no index to this series, but J1165 Common Rule Books (Albany) contain rules to plead entered under names of plaintiffs' attorneys. Notice of the rule to plead accompanied the declaration served on a defendant.
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| J0009 |
Declarations (Utica), 1831-42. 61.5 cu. ft.
The Utica declarations are arranged alphabetically by the first letter of the last name of the plaintiffs attorney and then chronologically by month and day of filing. This series was broken up into three parts by employees of the Court of Appeals, and the Historical Records Survey described each part separately. These parts are maintained as subseries (container lists are available). The few extant Utica declarations prior to 1830 are found in J00l0 Declarations and Motions before 1830. Utica declarations for the years 1841 through 1847 are filed along with motions in J1013 Declarations and Motions (Utica). There is no index to this series, but the accompanying rules to plead are entered in J2165 Common Rule Books (Utica).
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| J0017 |
Declarations (Geneva), 1829-47. 43.4 cu. ft.
The Geneva declarations are arranged chronologically by filing date. There is no index to this series, but J0167 Common Rule Books (Geneva) contain rules to plea entered under names of plaintiffs' attorneys.
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| J0011 |
Motions and Declarations (Albany), 1796-1847. 187.9 cu ft.
This series contains two main groups of documents arranged by filing attorneys' names. The first group consists of plaintiffs' declarations; the affidavits and admissions of service of these declarations; and related documents such as common bail pieces, replications, rejoinders, demurrers, stipulations, cognovits, writs of inquiry and inquisitions, and reports of judgment awards as determined by court clerks or referees. Other documents found occasionally are assignments of error; petitions for partition of real estate held jointly or in common; petitions for appraisal of land taken for street openings in New York City; judgment records remitted (sent back) by the Court of Errors; and interrogatories and answers thereto, taken down and returned by commissioners in execution of a writ of commission.
The second group of documents found in this series is motion papers. These are notices of motions accompanied by affidavits stating the grounds on which the court is to be moved for a ruling. Motions were made for a great variety of purposes: to change a venue; to stay proceedings; to quash a demurrer; to submit a case to referees; to enter judgment as in the case of nonsuit; to amend a judgment record; to issue a writ of execution; to stay an execution, to set aside a judgment or an inquisition, to attach the property of a judgment debtor, or to obtain a writ of certiorari, error, or mandamus. Motions might also be made to oppose any other motion The notice of motion is addressed to the attorney for the opposing party. It states that the court will be moved on a certain day during general or special term and specifies the ruling sought from the court. The notice is endorsed with an affidavit of service and an admission of service by the person served. The affidavit is a sworn deposition of the attorney for the party moving the court, stating the grounds for the motion. It states the form of action, the venue, the date when issue was or is to be joined, and all other facts pertinent to the motion The motion papers occasionally bear annotations, apparently made by a justice or clerk, concerning the motion and its merits. For fuller descriptions of motion papers, see J0126 Motions (Utica).
The series also contains a few briefs, demurrer books, and error books that state legal arguments in some detail. The series is arranged chronologically by year, then alphabetically by name of attorney for the plaintiff (declarations), or attorney for defendant or plaintiff (motions). Documents filed by an attorney for several different cases may be found bundled together The series contains plaintiff's declarations only through 1837; after that year they are found In a separate series, J00l5 Declarations (Albany).
The great bulk of the documents were filed after 1815. This series has many gaps, and at least some of the missing documents are found in the "Miscellaneous Motions," J0001. The original bundles of documents in this series were wrapped with pieces of paper on which were written in alphabetical order the names of the attorneys found in that bundle. Some of these labels for the years 1815 through 1835 survive, and they may serve as a partial finding aid to documents filed by the attorneys named. The series includes numerous documents introduced in support of enumerated motions placed on the court calendar. See J0241 Calendars of Enumerated Motions (Albany). Rules to plead granted as a matter of course after filing of the declaration were entered in J1165 Common Rule Books. Prior to 1837, entries of rules to plead the common rule books allow one to identify declarations filed by a particular attorney.
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| J0010 |
Declarations and Motions before 1830 (Utica), 1821-29. 1.3 cu. ft.
This series contains declarations, writs of inquiry and inquisitions, motion papers, cognovits, stipulations, exceptions, demurrers, and other miscellaneous documents. The series is fragmentary. Documents have been bundled by year and first letter of attorney's last name. There is no index or other finding aid. For fuller description of the various documents, see JOOll Motions and Declarations (Albany). For pleadings and motions filed at Utica after 1829, see J0009 Declarations (Utica) and J0126 Motions (Utica).
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| J1013 |
Declarations and Motions (Utica), 1841-47. 41.3 cu. ft.
This series consists mainly of declarations, affidavits and admissions of service of those declarations, subsequent pleadings, demurrers, cognovits, writs of inquiry and inquisitions, and reports of damages as determined by court clerks or referees. There are also some motion papers. The series contains a few circuit rolls which may be estrayed from J0023 Copies of Pleadings Furnished to Circuit Courts (Utica). The arrangement of the declarations is alphabetical by first letter of last name of plaintiffs attorney, then chronological by month and day of filing. Motions and circuit rolls are usually found bundled together at the end of the boxes for each year. There is no index to this series, but J2165 Common Rule Books (Utica) contain rules to plead entered at the time of filing of declarations. Utica declarations prior to 1841 are found in J00l0 Declarations and Motions before 1830 (Utica) and J0009 Declarations (Utica). Most of the Utica motions are in J0126 Motions (Utica) and J1126 Miscellaneous Motions (Utica). There are some gaps in this series, and the missing declarations (particularly for 1842) are found in J0009. This series of declarations and motions was formerly interfiled in J0013, which is now exclusively a series of writs of arrest and execution spanning the years from 1807 through 1847.
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| J1012 |
Pleas and Demurrers (Geneva), 1837-47. 1.3 cu ft.
This series contains defendant's and plaintiffs pleadings made subsequent to the plaintiffs initial declaration. Most of the documents are simple pleas in which a defendant's attorney denies the facts set forth in the plaintiffs declaration. The plea is accompanied by the defendant's affidavit of merits, in which he swears that he has a "good substantial defense on the merits." There are also many demurrers and a few pleadings. The series also includes amended pleadings, joinders in demurrer, and avowries (in which the defendant avows the right to property claimed by the plaintiff in an action of replevin). The documents are grouped together by year of filing but are otherwise unarranged and unindexed. A few other Geneva pleas are found in J0012 Miscellaneous Filed Documents.
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| J0004 |
Cognovits (Geneva), 1829-47. 5.2 cu ft.
The relicta et cognovit, or cognovit, is a defendant's confession of liability for the debt or other damages demanded in the plaintiffs declaration, plus any costs and charges arising out of the action. (Technically, the cognovit is not a plea.) The document states the names of the parties and their attorneys and the amount of damages claimed. It is signed by the plaintiff or his attorney. The cognovits are endorsed with the names of the parties and the plaintiffs attorney and the filing date, The records are arranged by filing date and are not indexed. Cognovits for Albany and Utica are found in the judgment rolls, J0140 and J0134.
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