Legal Term: DILATORY DEFENCE

Definition: chancery practice. A dilatory defence is one, the object of which is to dismiss, suspend, or obstruct the suit, without touching the merits, until the impediment or obstacle insisted on shall be removed. 2. These defences are of four kinds: 1. To the jurisdiction of the court. 2. To the person of the plaintiff or defendant. 3. To the form of proceedings, as that the suit is irregularly brought, or it is defective in its appropriate allegation of the parties, and, 4. To the propriety of maintaining the suit itself, because of the pendancy of another suit for the same controversy. Montag. Eq. Pl. 88, Story Eq. Pl. 434. Vide Defence: Plea, dilatory.

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