Affidavit to be Filed before Taking Depositions of Witnesses Residing in Another Country .... 98 Notice before Taking Depositions of Witnesses Residing in CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY. SECTION 1. REFERENCE TO SUBJECT OF LEGAL HISTORY. The early history of common law pleading can be found in the seventh chapter of Legal History.' SECTION 2. DEFINITION. The subject of common law pleadings is that concerned with the pleadings in proceedings before common law courts. A pleading is "a statement in a logical and legal form, of the facts which constitute the plaintiff's cause of action or the defendant's ground of defense."? This excludes a demurrer (which raises a question of law) from the list of pleadings; some of the more modern definitions of pleadings are enlarged so as to include demurrers.3 "The alternate statements of the parties, which constitute the pleadings (placita) of an action, were originally expressed by the parties or their attorneys in open court before the judges, minutes of which were entered on the record when they were finally settled. These minutes were made by the clerk under the immediate direction of the judges. This method of proceeding continued unto the reign of Henry VIII, when it became the universal practice of the parties or their advocates to deliver the pleadings to the court See Martin on Civil Procedure, Sec. 14. 1 Vol. I, Subject 2. 1 Chit. Pl., 2, 13. |