Directory_and_Chronicle_1882 — Page 708

CODE OF CIVIL PROCEDURE-HONGKONG.

137

also in case of the death of a sole defendant, or sole surviving defendant, where the action survives, the plaintiff may make an application to the Court, specifying the name, description, and place of abode of any person whom the plaintiff alleg s to be the legal repres ntative of such defendant, and whom he desires to be made the defendant in his stead; and the Court shall thereupon enter the name of such representative in the register of the suit in the place of such defendant, and shall issue au order t. him to appear on a day to be therein mentioned to defend the suit; and the case shall thereupon proceed in the same manner as if such representative had originally been made a defendant, aud had been a party to the former proceedings in the suit.

Marriages of Parties.

XXII.—The marriag of a female plaintiff, or defendant, shall not cause the suit to abate, but the suit may notwithstanding be proceeded with to judgment, and the decree thereupon may be executed upon the wife alone; and if the case is one in which the husband is by law liable for the debts of his wife, the decree may, by leave of the Court, be executed against the husband also; and in case of judgment for the wife, execution of the decre may, by leave o: the Court, be issued upon the application of the husband, where the husband is by law entitled to the money or things which may be the su.ject of t' e decrec.

Bankruptcy of Parties.

XXIII-The ankruptcy of the plaintiff in any suit which the assignee might maintain for the benefit of the creditors, shall not be a valid objection to the continuance of such su t, unless the assignee shall decline to continue the suit and to give security for the costs thereof within such reasonable time as the Court may order; if the assignee neglect or refuse to continue the suit, and to give such security within the time limited by the order, the defen lant may, within eight days after such neglect or refusal, plead the bankruptcy of the plaintiff as a reason for abating

the suit.

CHAPTER IV.-THE PETITION. Form and Contents.

XXIV. After the appearance of the defendant to the suit, or in case of non- appearance, then, by leave of the Court, the plaintiff may file in the Supreme Court a petition which shall contain the names, descriptions, and places of abode of the plaintiff and of the defendant, so far as they can be ascertain d, and shall correspond in those particulars with the writ of summons.

2. The petition shall then set out by way of narrative the material facts, matters, and circumstances on which the plaintiff relies, such narrative being divided into paragraphs numbered consecutively, and each paragraph containing, as nearly as may b, a sparate aul distinct statement or allegation. The petition shall pray specifically for the relief to w ich the plaintiff may conceive himself entitled, and also for general relief.

3. Te petition must be as rief as may be consistent with a clear statement of the acts on which the praver is sought to be supported, and with information to the defendant of the nature of the claim set up.

4.-Documents must not be unnecessarily set out in the petition in hæc verba, but so much only of them as is p rtinent 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.

5.--Dates and sums shall be expressed in figures and not in words.

6. The petition may not contain any statement of the mere evidence by which the facts alleg d are intended to be proved, and may not contain any argument of law.

7.-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 bis answer, by reason of which he intends to contend