common law In law, common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law created by judges and similar quasi-judicial tribunals by virtue of being stated in written opinions."The common law is not a brooding omnipres ...

an abatement in pleading or plea in abatement, was a

defence Defense or defence may refer to: Tactical, martial, and political acts or groups * Defense (military), forces primarily intended for warfare * Civil defense, the organizing of civilians to deal with emergencies or enemy attacks * Defense indus ...

legal proceedings Legal proceeding is an activity that seeks to invoke the power of a tribunal in order to enforce a law. Although the term may be defined more broadly or more narrowly as circumstances require, it has been noted that " e term ''legal proceedings'' i ...

, which did not contest the principle of the

plaintiff A plaintiff ( Π in legal shorthand) is the party who initiates a lawsuit (also known as an ''action'') before a court. By doing so, the plaintiff seeks a legal remedy. If this search is successful, the court will issue judgment in favor of t ...

's right to relief, but contended that the plaintiff had made a procedural error, and needed to bring fresh proceedings, which followed the correct procedure. The objection could deal with (among others) place, time, or method of assertion. The plea in abatement was abolished as a particular form of response by the defendant when common-law pleading was replaced by Code Pleading and later by pleading rules, such as the federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Successful assertion of pleas in abatement merely pause proceedings until the problem is remedied. There were two fundamental styles of abatement. The first was abatement in proceedings which would merely suspend the proceeding until the error was fixed. Abatement in law would terminate it completely, although it could be restarted at the plaintiff's request. The second term is more common. It has now been abolished in most if not all common law jurisdictions.

References

Common law Legal defenses {{law-term-stub