61 N.H. 153 | N.H. | 1881
In Pettingill v. McGregor,
In Brackett v. Bartlett,
Farnum v. Bell,
Seaver v. Allen,
The indorsement of the writ is, in effect, a bond that the indorser will be responsible to the defendant for costs in certain emergencies. Knowles v. Rowell,
Original writs are required to be indorsed before service by the plaintiff, or by his agent or attorney, when the plaintiff is an inhabitant of the state; otherwise, by some responsible person who is such inhabitant. G. L., c. 222, s. 8. The indorsement of the writ by a plaintiff who is an inhabitant of the state adds nothing to his liability; for costs follow the event of the action unless otherwise directed by law or by the court (G. L., c. 233, s. 1), and the indorsement of the writ by a resident plaintiff is merely a nominal matter. The poverty of the plaintiff, if a resident of the state, is no ground for requiring a new indorser; and if he sues by his next friend, his poverty is no ground for requiring a new indorser if both are inhabitants of the state. Leazar v. Cota,
"No writ, declaration, return, process, judgment, or other proceeding in the courts or course of justice, shall be abated, quashed, or reversed for any error or mistake where the person or case may be rightly understood by the court." G. L., c. 226, s. 8. "Amendments in matters of substance may be permitted in any action, in any stage of the proceedings," saving the rights of third persons. G. L., c. 226, s. 9. This statute was so amended in 1879 "as to permit any amendment to be made when it shall appear to the court that it is necessary for the prevention of gross injustice." Laws of 1879, c. 7. If there was any amendment which justice required that could not be made as the statute stood prior to 1879, it would seem that the legislature of that year, by the act above cited, intended to remove all doubt upon the subject. The statute swept away not only every technical obstacle, but every other that stood in the way of preventing injustice for want of amendment. In Seaver v. Allen, supra, it was said, — "By the amendment the defendant was placed in as good a position as he would have had if the writ had been properly indorsed at first; and thereupon the court might well refuse to entertain the defendant's motion after the time of pleading in abatement had expired." In this case the amendment, if granted, will not prevent the defendant, or subsequent attaching creditors, from making the same defence upon the merits which they could have made if the writ had been indorsed before service; nor will the plaintiffs be relieved from proving the same facts which they would have been required to prove if their writ had been seasonably indorsed. To deny the amendment is to deny the plaintiffs the opportunity to prove their claim in this suit, and perhaps to inflict upon them the loss of their debt, for a mere clerical error that does not appear to be of any equitable or practical importance; for enforcing the plaintiffs' liability for costs, the indorsement would give the defendant a cumulative remedy that may be worthless and immaterial. And if it would be valuable, there is no reason, within the wide range of the legislative purpose, why gross injustice should be done by incurability of the defect. There is no indorsement to be amended; but in whatever sense the indorsement is or is not a part of the writ, the paper on *156
which the writ, declaration, return, and indorsement should be inscribed is an amendable document of procedure. The strict and subtle methods of construction by which statutes of amendment have been evaded and justice turned aside, have been abandoned. Such statutes are to be construed and administered, in the humane and liberal spirit in which they are enacted, for the accomplishment of the explicitly declared legislative purpose of preventing gross injustice. Upon the true principle of the common law of amendments (Metcalf v. Gilmore,
The rights of the subsequent attaching creditors would not be infringed by an indorsement made after entry of the action, as they would not be by many amendments of the writ, declaration, and return.
Case discharged.
BLODGETT[,] J., did not sit: the others concurred.