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Theory Of Pleading A Survey Including The Federal Rules, William Wirt Blume

Michigan Law Review

In an often-quoted report of a committee of the American Bar Association, Roscoe Pound stated: "Pleadings have four purposes: (1) The first is to serve as a formal basis for the judgment. This is the oldest function, and one that goes back before the time of rational, as distinguished from purely mechanical trial of issues. . . . (2) Another is to separate issues of fact from questions of law .... (3) Another is to give litigants the advantage of a plea of res judicata if molested again for the same cause .... (4) Finally, pleadings exist to notify parties …