Hopper v. Hopper
Supreme Court of New Jersey
This was an action by Maria Hopper, widow' of John J. Hopper, to recover dower of lands in the county of Bergen. The demandant’s count was in the usual form. The defendant, as to part of the lands in which dower was demanded (after full defence) pleaded tout temps prist; and as to residue, he pleaded non-tenure; the plea concluding to the action.
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This was an action by Maria Hopper, widow' of John J. Hopper, to recover dower of lands in the county of Bergen. The demandant’s count was in the usual form. The defendant, as to part of the lands in which dower was demanded (after full defence) pleaded tout temps prist; and as to residue, he pleaded non-tenure; the plea concluding to the action. The demand-ant confessed the truth of the second plea, but as to the other replied that John J. Hopper, formerly her husband, died seised in fee of the lands described in that plea; that after his death, the defendant became seised of the said lands…
1Opinion of the CourtCarpenter, J.
The first objection taken to the plea is an objection in point of form, which, if available on special demurrer, has been waived by pleading over. Much importance was formerly attached to the different modes of making defence, and any deviation from the proper form gave occasion to critical and subtile exceptions, now discountenanced by the courts. Tout *546temps prist is a plea which goes only to the damages and not to the action, and has been irregularly pleaded in the present instance, but the error is an error in form merely. Want of defence, when required — and upon the same reason an…
2Cases cited2 opinions
- Douglass v. HowlandNew York Supreme Court · 1840
- Stewart v. EdenNew York Supreme Court · 1804