86 Mo. 495 | Mo. | 1885
— This suit is based upon a contract made by the plaintiff, the Laclede Gas Light Company, and the defendant, dated February 28, 1873. The plaintiff
The answer was a general denial. The sufficiency of the second and subsequent counts was questioned by way of an objection to the introduction of any evidence, on the ground that these counts did not state a cause of action. By following out the references thus made by the second and following counts to the first, each stated a good cause of action. This being so, the objection made, as it was for the first time, on trial, was properly overruled, even if well taken, had it been made in proper time. Aside from this, the point was not well taken. Formerly subsequent counts might be made certain by reference to a preceding one; nor was this rule always strictly confined to matters of inducement. 1 Chitty’s Plead. 855; Crookshank v. Gray, 20 John. 347; Freeland v. McCullough, 1 Den. 414; Griswold et al. v. Ins. Co., 3 Cow. 96; Loomis v. Swick, 3 Wend. 205. The count to which reference is made should be a good one. Nelson v. Swan, 13 John. 484. This last rule, it is said,