"{\"id\": \"2027007\", \"name\": \"Samuel Kincaid, Plaintiff in Error, versus John Howe\", \"name_abbreviation\": \"Kincaid v. Howe\", \"decision_date\": \"1813-06\", \"docket_number\": \"\", \"first_page\": \"211\", \"last_page\": \"213\", \"citations\": \"9 Tyng 203\", \"volume\": \"10\", \"reporter\": \"Massachusetts Reports\", \"court\": \"Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court\", \"jurisdiction\": \"Massachusetts\", \"last_updated\": \"2021-08-10T22:44:16.222512+00:00\", \"provenance\": \"CAP\", \"judges\": \"\", \"parties\": \"Samuel Kincaid, Plaintiff in Error, versus John Howe.\", \"head_matter\": \"Samuel Kincaid, Plaintiff in Error, versus John Howe.\\nA B, being the younger of the same name in the same town, brought an action by the name of A B only, omitting the addition of junior. The Common Pleas refused to allow him to amend his writ by making the addition, and to give in evidence the written promise of the defendant, made to the plaintiff; by the name of A B, junior.\\nUpon error brought in this Court, the judgment rendered against the plaintiff; upon a verdict taken in the court below, was reversed, and a new trial ordered.\\nThe writ of error in this case was sued to obtain the reversal o\\u00ed a judgment of the Court of Common Pleas for this county, rendered May term, 1810, in an action wherein the said Kincaid was plaintiff, and the said Howe defendant. * The origi- [ * 204 ] nal action was case upon two promissory notes made by the defendant, and payable to Samuel Kincaid, Jun., or order; and was originally commenced before a justice of the peace for this county, and tried by him upon the general issue. The plaintiff having obtained a judgment before the justice in his favor, the defendant appealed to the Common Pleas.\\nAfter several continuances in that court, the plaintiff moved for leave to amend his writ and declaration, by adding junior to his name; it being agreed that in the place of the plaintiff\\u2019s residence his father, named Samuel Kincaid, also lived at the time of serving the original writ. The court refused to allow the amendment, and, when the action came to trial, they also refused to permit the notes so declared on to be read in evidence, although the defendant\\u2019s attorney admitted that the said notes were made and signed by the defendant. To these decisions of the Common Pleas the plaintiff offered a bill of exceptions at the common law, containing the foregoing facts, thus made part of the record ; and the same facts constituted the errors assigned on this writ of error.\\nSiebbins for the plaintiff in error.\\nWilde for the defendant in error.\", \"word_count\": \"1110\", \"char_count\": \"6216\", \"text\": \"Per Curiam.\\nIt is not easy to conjecture the reasons by which the Court of Common Pleas were prevailed on to reject finally the proposed amendment, by which the plaintiff's writ and declaration would have been rendered conformable to the fact and truth of the case, in every descriptive circumstance; especially as the court seem to have been apprized that the motion for the amendment was directed to the purpose of conforming the plaintiff's declarat.on to the state of his evidence, and as, in their apprehension, the amendment was essential to enable the plaintiff to proceed in his action. If the court had rejected the amendment as unnecessary, and had proceeded afterwards to receive the notes in evidence, considering the variance as altogether immaterial, we should have thought the decision much nearer to the legal principles applicable to the case.\\n* Junior, or younger, is no part of the name; but\\nan addition by use, and serving for a convenient distinction, when a father and son have each of them the same Christian and surname, or when two persons of the same names and occupations reside in the same town. And it seems to be only in the case of a father and son of the same names, that the addition is required to be stated in a writ, where the son is made defendant, and other words describing the defendant as the son, are equivalent. And if the description is omitted, and the right defendant appears and pleads, he cannot afterwards object for the uncertainty. And if the father appears, the plaintiff may aver that he is not the person sued, and may then show, by additional averments or suggestions on the record, that the son is the party against whom the writ was directed, and upon whom it had been served.\\nWhere the omission respects the plaintiff, it is not a circumstance which can be taken advantage of in abatement: if at all, it must be by objecting to the written evidence, where the variance is discoverable. But even then, and in the case of a deed, where more precision in recitals is generally required, a variance in any addition or description of the person is considered as immaterial, and not to be taken advantage of in pleading, and, of course, not in objecting to the deed as evidence; for there a greater latitude is indulged than when the exception is by pleading or demurring for the variance, upon oyer of the deed.\\nIn the case at bar, a precision, not to any purpose perhaps aoso lately essential, might have been obtained by permitting the amendment ; and an objection would have been avoided, which was merely captious and dilatory in its nature, not at all affecting the merits of the action, or important in any degree to the security of the party sued, or to any other person,\\nThe judgment of the Court of Common Pleas is reversed, and a new trial is to be had at the bar of this Court.\\nADDITIONAL NOTE.\\n[An amendment in the name of the plaintiff will be granted, where it is wrongly spelled. \\u2014 Furniss vs. Ellis, 2 Brock. 14. \\u2014 So in the name of a corporation, which is sued under a wrong name.\\u2014 Burnham vs. Savings, &e., 5 JV. H. 573.\\nThe omission, in a warrant, of the defendant's Christian name cannot be amended. \\u2014 Johnston vs. McGuin, 4 Dev. 279.\\nA mistake in the name of an execution plaintiff may be amended, after a delivery bond taken in the right name, and execution thereupon, if the error is a clerical one, and the record contains enough to amend by. \\u2014 Bank vs. Lacy, 1 Monr. 7.\\nSee Bowman vs. Green, 6 Monr. 341. \\u2014 Cain vs. Kersay, 1 Yerg. 443.\\u2014 Lynes vs The State, 5 Por. 236.\\u2014F. H.]\\n[Commonwealth vs. Perkins, 1 Pick. 388. \\u2014 Ed ]\\nCom. Dig., Abatement, F, 21, cites Theol. Dig. 1. 6, c. 13, \\u00a7 7, 8, 9, 10, &c., 44 E, 3, 34, b, 39; H, 6, 46. \\u2014 1 Sid. 247. \\u2014 Salk. 7.\\nCom. Dig., Abatement, H, 9, cites Theol. Dig. 1. 9, c. 3, \\u00a7 10, &c.\\n[The permitting amendments is a matter of discretion. \\u2014 Mandeville & Al. vs. Wilson, 5 Crunch, 14. \\u2014 A superior court will not direct the court below to allow the proceedings to be amended. \\u2014 Sheely vs. Mandeville & Al., 6 Cranch, 253. \\u2014 And the allowance or disallowance of amendments is not a matter for which error lies.\\u2014 Chirac & Al. vs. Rheinecker, 11 Whea. 280.\\u2014 Thacker vs. Miller, 13 Mass. Rep. 270 \\u2014 Ed.]\"}"