43 So. 1 | Miss. | 1907
delivered the opinion of the court.
The statute (§ 2401, Ann. Code 1892) requires a written statement of the cause of action. The widest liberality that can be indulged as to pleadings in the courts of justices of the peace cannot cover a total failure to file any written statement of the cause of action whatever. The true rule is that there must be such a written statement of the cause of action as can be successfully pleaded by the defendant, if sued again on the same cause of action — such a statement as will give the defendant the benefit of a plea of res judicata. This is clearly shown by the ease of Butts v. Phelps, 79 Mo., 302.
The judgment is reversed, and the cause remanded, with leave to amend.