French v. A. H. Rainey & Co.

The Chancellor:

— In this case the complainant has excepted to the sufficiency of the answer of the defendant Rainey, and both parties have appealed from the rulings of the master on these exceptions. The point raised by one of these exceptions has been fought over in the courts for a hundred years, and cannot be said to have been yet determined. The question is whether a defendant who undertakes to defend by answering the bill, instead of demurring or pleading, can, by denying the complainant’s right to an account, protect himself from giving in his answer the account called for.

The bill…