Legal Term: STATEMENT,

Definition: pleading and in practice. In the courts of Pennsylvania, by the act to regulate arbitrations and proceedings in courts of justice, passed March 21, 1806, 4 Smith~s Laws of Penn. 828, it is enacted, "that in all cases where a suit may be brought in any court of record for the recovery of any debt founded on a verbal promise, book account, note, bond, penal or single bill, or all or any of them, and which from the amount thereof may not be cognizable before a justice of the peace, it shall be the duty of the plaintiff, either by himself, his agent or attorney, to file in the office of the pro-thonotary a statement of his, her or their demand, on or before the third day of the term to which the process issued is returnable, particularly specifying the date of the promise, book account, note, bond, penal or single bill or all or any of them, on which the demand is founded, and the whole amount which he, she, or they believe is justly due to him, her or them from the defendant."

2. This statement stands in the place of a declaration, and is not restric-ted to any particular form; 3 Serg. & Rawle, 406; it is an immethodical declaration, stating in substance the time of the contract, the sum, and on what founded, with (what is an important principle in a statement, 6 Serg. & Rawle, 21,) a certificate of the belief of the plaintiff or his agent, of what is really due. Serg. & Rawle, 28. See 6 Serg. & Rawle, 53; 8 Serg. & Rawle, 567; 2 Serg. & Rawle, 537; 2 Browne~s R. 40; 8 Serg. & R. 316.

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