Crossword clues for demurrer
demurrer
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Demurrer \De*mur"rer\, n.
One who demurs.
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(Law) A stop or pause by a party to an action, for the judgment of the court on the question, whether, assuming the truth of the matter alleged by the opposite party, it is sufficient in law to sustain the action or defense, and hence whether the party resting is bound to answer or proceed further.
Demurrer to evidence, an exception taken by a party to the evidence offered by the opposite party, and an objecting to proceed further, on the allegation that such evidence is not sufficient in law to maintain the issue, and a reference to the court to determine the point.
--Bouvier.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
legal pleading, 1530s, from Anglo-French demurrer, Old French demorer "to delay, retard" (see demur).
Wiktionary
n. 1 someone who demurs or objects 2 (context legal English) A motion by a party to an action, for the immediate or summary judgment of the court on the question, whether, assuming the truth of the matter alleged by the opposite party, it is sufficient in law to sustain the action or defense, and hence whether the party resting is bound to answer or proceed further.
WordNet
n. (law) a formal objection to an opponent's pleadings [syn: demur, demurral]
(law) any pleading that attacks the legal sufficiency of the opponent's pleadings
a defendant's answer or plea denying the truth of the charges against him; "he gave evidence for the defense" [syn: defense, defence, denial] [ant: prosecution]
Wikipedia
A demurrer is a pleading in a lawsuit that objects to or challenges a pleading filed by an opposing party. The word demur means "to object"; a demurrer is the document that makes the objection. Lawyers informally define a demurrer as a defendant saying, "So what?" to the pleading.
Typically, the defendant in a case will demur to the complaint, but it is also possible for the plaintiff to demur to an answer. The demurrer challenges the legal sufficiency of a cause of action in a complaint or of an affirmative defense in an answer. If a cause of action in a complaint does not state a cognizable claim (for example, the claim is nonsense) or if it does not state all the required elements, then the challenged cause of action or possibly the entire complaint can be essentially thrown out (informally speaking) at the demurrer stage as not legally sufficient. A demurrer is typically filed near the beginning of a case, in response to the plaintiff filing a complaint or the defendant answering the complaint.
At common law, a demurrer was the pleading through which a defendant would challenge the legal sufficiency of a complaint in criminal or civil cases, but today the pleading has been discontinued in many jurisdictions, including the United Kingdom, the U.S. federal court system, and most U.S. states (though some states including California, Pennsylvania, and Virginia retain it). In criminal cases, a demurrer was considered a common law due process right, to be heard and decided before the defendant was required to plead "not guilty", or make any other pleading in response, without having to admit or deny any of the facts alleged.
A demurrer generally assumes the truth of all material facts alleged in the complaint and the defendant cannot present evidence to the contrary, even if those facts appear to be obvious fabrications by the plaintiff or are likely to be easily disproved during the litigation of the case. That is, the point of the demurrer is to test whether a cause of action or affirmative defense as pleaded is legally insufficient even if all facts pleaded are assumed to be true.
The sole exception to the no-evidence rule is that a court may take judicial notice of certain things. For example, the court can take judicial notice of commonly known facts not reasonably subject to challenge such as the Gregorian calendar or of public records such as a published legislative report showing the intent of the legislature in enacting a particular statute.
Usage examples of "demurrer".
It seemeth me, however, that Master Spikeman hath no necessity to join issue with thee on the facts, and that a bare demurrer were all-sufficient to throw thee out of court.
Santa Teresa County Superior Court, all the demurrers, answers, and cross-complaints.
According to the inventory, the first box should have contained copies of police reports, transcripts from the murder trial, the complaint Lonnie'd filed in the civil action in the Santa Teresa County Superior Court, all the demurrers, answers, and cross-complaints.
Taking one thing with another, and allowing four months on the average for each necessary round trip to the West Indies to take evidence on commission, and taking into account demurrers and rebuttals and sur-rebuttals, the Lord Chancellor thinks that it will be thirty-seven years before any case reaches the House of Lords, and he went on to say, cackling into his soup, that our interest in the case will be greatly diminished by then.
Here plaintiff demurs, the Village joining in his demurrer, offering in exhibit similar structures of which Cyclone Seven is one of a series occupying sites elsewhere in the land, wherein among the four and on only one occasion a similar event occurred at a Long island, New York, site in the form of a boy similarly entrapped and provoking a similar outcry until a proffered ten dollar bill brought him forth little the worse.