Guy v. Baer
| Decision Date | 17 October 1951 |
| Docket Number | No. 238,238 |
| Citation | 67 S.E.2d 47,234 N.C. 276 |
| Parties | GUY et al. v. BAER et al. |
| Court | North Carolina Supreme Court |
I. R. Williams, Dunn, and Neill McK. Salmon, Lillington, for plaintiff appellants.
Smith, Leach & Anderson, James K. Dorsett, Jr., all of Raleigh, and Wilson & Johnson, Lillington, for defendant appellees.
The complaint must contain a plain and concise statement of the facts constituting a cause of action, without unnecessary repetition; and each material allegation must be distinctly numbered. G.S. § 1-122.
The function of a complaint is not the narration of the evidence but the statement of the substantive and constituent facts upon which the plaintiffs' claim to relief is founded. Winders v. Hill, 141 N.C. 694, 54 S.E. 440; Brown v. Hall, 226 N.C. 732, 40 S.E.2d 412. Hence, 'the facts constituting a cause of action' required by the statute are the material, essential, and ultimate facts which constitute the cause of action--but not the evidence to prove them. With few exceptions only the facts to which the pertinent legal or equitable principles of law are to be applied are to be stated in the complaint. Chason v. Marley, 223 N.C. 738, 28 S.E.2d 223, and cases cited; Long v. Love, 230 N.C. 535, 53 S.E.2d 661.
When a good cause of action is thus stated, evidence of the facts alleged, including every material detail, fact, and circumstance tending to establish the ultimate and issuable facts, is admissible. But it does not follow that it is either necessary or proper to allege any and every fact, evidence of which will be competent at the hearing. Chason v. Marley, supra.
Observance of these rules in drafting a complaint is essential to good pleading and a well prepared complaint is most helpful both to the court and the jury. However, they are all too often honored in the breach. The defendants here assert, with some justification, that the complaint contains allegations of evidentiary, probative facts not essential to a statement of plaintiffs' alleged causes of action and which tend only to confuse.
The allegations contained in paragraphs 5, 6, and 7 of the first cause of action were properly stricken. They merely relate facts and circumstances which induced defendant Owen to approach plaintiffs and solicit them to execute the contracts in question. What happened after Owen contacted plaintiffs is the essential question. The other is merely unnecessary window dressing.
We do not, however, concur in the view of the court below that the latter part of paragraph 10 should be stricken. Here the plaintiffs allege the purpose and intent of the delivery in escrow. Upon these facts the plaintiffs, in part, base their first cause of action. Nor was it proper to strike subsection (c) and the last paragraph of allegation number 12.
...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Mills v. Carolina Cemetery Park Corp.
...allege plainly and concisely the rules and regulations he contends are unlawful and unreasonable. G.S. § 1-122, subd. 2; Guy v. Baer, 234 N.C. 276, 67 S.E.2d 47. Apparently plaintiff has a defective statement of a good cause of action which is fatal, Scott v. Statesville Plywood & Veneer Co......
-
Pinnix v. Toomey
...cause of action. G.S. § 1-153; Barron v. Cain, 216 N.C. 282, 4 S.E.2d 618; Chason v. Marley, 223 N.C. 738, 28 S.E.2d 223; Guy v. Baer, 234 N.C. 276, 67 S.E.2d 47. Furthermore, where the injured party elects to sue in tort rather than in contract, he must accept the standard of care prescrib......
-
Corprew v. Geigy Chemical Corp., 34
...stated cause of action. Wrenn v. Graham, 236 N.C. 719, 74 S.E.2d 232; Alexander v. Brown, 236 N.C. 212, 72 S.E.2d 522; Guy v. Baer, 234 N.C. 276, 67 S.E.2d 47.' The demurrer should have been sustained on the ground of improper joinder of causes of action. However, the court erred in dismiss......
-
Thomas & Howard Co. of Shelby v. American Mut. Liability Ins. Co.
...is to allege the substantive and constituent facts of the cause of action, not to narrate the evidence supporting them. Guy v. Baer, 234 N.C. 276, 67 S.E.2d 47; Chason v. Marley, 223 N.C. 738, 28 S.E.2d 223. The corporate defendant asks in its brief: 'What loss has the plaintiff suffered wi......