Directory_and_Chronicle_1877 — Page 717

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CODE OF CIVIL PROCEDURE-HONGKONG.

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.

8.-Subject to any general rule or order relating thereto, the petition must be signed by the plaintiff or his counsel in all cases, unless the plaintiff obtain the leave of the Court to dispense with such Signature.

9. The Court may, where the circumstances of the case appear to require it, order the plaintiff to verify his petition, or any part thereof, on oath or by affidavit.

Particulars of Demand.

XXV.- Where the plaintiff's claim is for money payable in respect of any contract, expressed or implied, or to recover the possession or the value of any goods wrongfully taken and detained, or wrongfully detained by the defendant 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 petition 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.

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

3. The plaintiff shall not at the hearing obtain a judgment for any sum exceeding that stated in the particulars, except for subsequent interest and the costs of suit, notwithstanding that the sum clained in the petition for debt or damages exceeds the sum stated in the particulars.

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

5. Any variance between the items contained in the particulars 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.

6. When particulars are amended by leave of the court, or where further or better particulars are ordered to be given, the order shall state the time within which the amendment, is to be made, or the further or better particulars are to be given; and the order for the amended or further or better particulars shall state the time which the defendant is to have to put in his answer.

Papers Annexed.

XXVI.—Where the plaintiff seeks (in addition to or without any order for the payment of money by the defendant) to obtain, as against any person, any general or special declaration by the Court of his rights under any contract or instrument, or to set aside any contract, or to have any bond, bill note, or instrument in writing delivered up to be cancelled, or to restrain any defendant by injunction, or to have any account taken between himself and any other or others, and in such other cases as the nature of the circumstances makes it necessary or expedient, the plaintiff in his petition may refer to and briefly describe any papers or documents on the contents of which he intends to rely, and may annex copies of such papers or documents to the petition, where such papers or documents are brief, or may state any reason for not annexing copies of such papers or documents, or any of them respectively (as, their length, possession of copies by the defendant, loss, inability to procure copies), that he may have to allege. The plaintiff shall, in his petition, offer to allow the defendant to inspect such papers and documents as aforesaid, or such of them as are in his possession or power.

Equitable Relief and Defence.

XXVII.-Every petition is to be taken to imply an offer to do equity in the matter of the suit and to admit of any equitable detence, and, on the other hand, to enable the plaintiff to obtain at the hearing any such equitable relief as he may appear entitled to from the fact stated and proved, though not specifically asked, if it may be granted without hardship to the defendant.