ISSUE

From Agepedia

ISSUE. The plaintiff and defendant, in a. suit at law, are said to be at issue, when something is affirmed by one of them, 8* which is denied by the other. The subject of this affirmation and denial may be either matter of fact or matter of law. If the defendant intends to dispute the truth of the statement whereon the plaintiff grounds his complaint, he denies either the whole of the statement, or some one material fact contained in it, which, in technical language, is called traversing. He then appeals to the decision of a jury, which is called putting himself upon the country. Although the plaintiff's statement be true, it does not necessarily follow that it discloses sufficient grounds fo.r complaint against the defendant. If it does not so, the defendant admits the truth of the facts, but denies their sufficiency in law to support the action. In this case, he appeals to the decision of the judges ; for the jury merely decides questions which involve matters of fact. Questions of mere law fall beneath the cognizance of the judges. When either the plaintiff or the defendant admits the facts, but denies the law of the other, he is said to demur. Although the plaintiff's statement, so far as it goes, be both true in point of fact, and sufficient in point of law, the defendant may still have a good defence ; for the plaintiff may have stated the truth, but not the whole truth. Some facts may be suppressed, which, when explained by the defendant, may turn the scale in his favor. If this counterstatement of the defendant is insufficient in point of law as a defence, the plaintiff demurs ; but if it is sufficient in point of law, he must either deny the facts, or allege some other facts to counterbalance them. By these means, the parties in the cause must ultimately arrive at some point, either of law or fact, at which they are at issue, and judgment will be given for that party in whose favor the issue is decided. The statements and counterstatements of the parties are called the pleadings, and each particular stage in the pleadings has a name appropriated to itself. These names are, 1. the declaration: 2. the plea; 3. the replication; 4. the rejoinder; 5. the surrejoinder; 6. the rebutter; and 7. the surrebutter. The first, third, fifth and seventh names belong to the pleadings of the plaintiff; the second, fourth and sixth to the defendant. Issue is generally taken before the parties arrive at a surrebutter In former times, the pleadings were conducted, viva voce, in open court, and the judges presided, like moderators, during the dispute, until the parties arrived at an issue; but they are now drawn up in writing out of court, and are then filed by the attorneys in the proper offices attached to the court. The judges now hear nothing of them until the issue of fact comes on for trial, or the issue at law for argument. If the existence of a particular record is put in issue, it must be produced by the party who affirms its existence ; and the court, at the time appointed for its production, decides the issue without the intervention of a jury. This is one of the very rare cases where the jury are not the sole judges on questions of fact. There is a rule of pleading, that only one material fact shall be put in issue in one plea. To this rule the general issue forms a wide exception. When a special plea is pleaded, evidence is only admissible as to the truth or falsehood of the particular fact which is the subject of that plea; but the general issue is a species of plea which usually compels the plaintiff to prove his whole case to the satisfaction of a jury, and, at the same time, enables the defendant to prove any circumstances whatever which discharge his liability. Thus, if an action be brought against a man for the price of goods which the plaintiff alleges that the defendant bought, if the defendant has become a bankrupt since the purchase, he may plead that fact specially, and then the evidence is confined to the single questionHas he or has he not become bankrupt ? But if he pleads the general issue, then he may prove either that he never bought the goods, or that he paid for them, or that he returned them to the plaintiff on finding them to be of an inferior quality, or, in short, any thing else which is a bar to the action. The form of the general issue, in this case, is simply "that the defendant did.not promise or undertake in manner and form as the plaintiff has complained against him." Owing to this latitude allowed to the general issue, it sometimes happens that plaintiffs are taken by surprise at the trial, by the defendant setting up an unexpected defence, which the plaintiff, on the spur of the moment, is unable to disprove. When this is proved to the satisfaction of the judges, they will, if the justice of the case require it, grant a new trial. ISTAKHAR. (See Persepolis.) ISTAMBOL. (See Constantinople,) ISTHMIAN GAMES ; so called because they were celebrated on the isthmus of Corinth, which joins the Peloponnesus to the continent. On it was a famous temple consecrated to Neptune, near which the Isthmian games were celebrated. On tine side of the temple were the statues of the victors in these games, and on the other was a grove of pines. In the temple stood four horses, gilded all over, with the exception of their ivory hoofs : by the side of the horses were two Tritons, the upper parts of which were gilt, and the rest of ivory. Behind the horses was a car, with the statues of Neptune and Amphitrite, of gold and ivory. Not far from the temple were a considerable theatre, and the stadium, of white stone, in which the games were celebrated. The whole isthmus was sacred to Neptune, who was thence called Isthmius. According to the common opinion, the Isthmian games were founded in honor of Pakemon or Melicerta. (See Ino.) Others relate that Theseus established them in honor of Neptune. They were originally held in the night, and had perhaps fallen into disuse, when Theseus restored them, and ordered them to be celebrated in the day. As Theseus was either the founder or the restorer of these games, the Athenians had the precedence in them. All Greece took part in them, excepting the Eleans, whose absence was thus explained:As the sons of Actor were riding to these games, they were killed, near Elea, by Hercules. Their mother, Melione, discovered the murderer, who then resided in the territory of Argos. She therefore demanded satisfaction of the Argives, and, on their refusal to grant it, requested the Corinthians not to admit them to the games, as disturbers of the public tranquillity. As they would not yield to her solicitations, Melione pronounced direful curses on all the Eleans, if they should ever participate in these games. They were celebrated, with the same splendor as the Olympian and other public games, twice in each Olympiad, probably in autumn: the athletic exercises were the same. The victors were at first adorned with wreaths of pine branches, but afterwards with wreaths of dry and faded ivy. The pine wreaths were afterwards resumed.