Directory_and_Chronicle_1869 — Page 301

IN CHINA AND JAPAN.

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or value of 100 dollars or upwards-or is for the recovery of damages of the amount of 100 Dollars or upwards-proceedings shall be commenced by the filing of a petition (Form 5.)

27. The petition shall contain a narrative of the material facts, Contents of petition. matters, and circumstances on which the plaintiff relies, such narrative being divided into paragraphs numbered consecutively, each paragraph containing, as nearly as may be, a separate and distinct statement or allegation, and shall pray specially for the relief to which the plain- tiff may conceive himself entitled, and also for general relief.

The petition must be as brief as may be consistent with a clear statement of the facts on which the prayer is sought to be support- ed, and with information to the defendant of the nature of the claim set up.

Documents must not be unnecessarily set out in the petition in hực verba, but so much only of them as is pertinent and material may be set out, or the effect and substance of so much only of them as is pertinent and material may be given, without needless prolixity.

Dates and sums shall be expressed in figures and not in words. The petition may not contain any statement of the mere evidence by which the facts alleged are intended to be proved, and may not contain any argument of law.

The facts material to the establishment of the plaintiff's right to recover shall be alleged positively, briefly, and as clearly as may be, so as to enable the defendant by his answer either to admit or deny any one or more of the material allegations, or else to admit the truth of any or all of the allegations, but to set forth some other substantive matter in his answer, by reason of which he intends to contend that the right of the plaintiff to recover or to any relief capable of being granted on the petition has not yet accrued, or is released or barred or otherwise gone.

Particulars of Demand.

28. Where the plaintiff's claim is for money payable in respect In what cases. of any contract express or implied,-or to recover the possession or the value of any goods wrongfully taken and detained by the defen- dant from the plaintiff, it shall be sufficient for the plaintiff to state his claim in the petition in a general form, and to annex to the peti- tion a Schedule stating the particulars of his demand, in any form which shall give the defendant reasonably sufficient information as to the details of the claim.

An application for further or better particulars may be made by the defendant before answer, on summons.

The plaintiff shall not at the hearing obtain a decree for any Effect of particulars. sum exceeding that stated in the particulars, except for subsequent

interest and the costs of suit, notwithstanding that the sum claimed

in the petition for debt or damages exceeds the sum stated in the particulars.

Particulars of demand shall not be amended except by leave of Amendment, the Court; and the Court may, or any application for leave to amend, grant the same, on its appearing that the defendant will not be pre- judiced by amendment. Otherwise the Court may refuse leave or grant the same on such terms as to notice, postponement of trial, or costs, as justice requires.

Any variance between the items contained in the particulars Variance. and the items proved at the hearing may be amended at the hearing, either at once or on such terms as to notice, adjournment, or costs, as justice requires.