A View of Canadian Law. 295 
served on a corporation by serving an officer of the corporation, on a 
lunatic by serving the lunatic or his committee or the person in whose 
charge he is. It may be served on a married woman; because there is 
no distinction between married women and other women in that regard 
in Ontario. On the service of the writ, the defendant is given 
ten days to appear. One may specially appear simply to dis- 
pute the amount of damages. If that is done, then it is referred to a 
Master at once to determine the amount of damages without further 
pleading. If there be a general appearance, the practice is different. 
Some writs may be endorsed specially, as we call it, that is practically 
what you might call liquidated claims set out on the writ. If an appear- 
ance be entered to a specially endorsed writ, an application may be made 
by the plaintiff, if so advised, to the Master to strike out the appearance 
and cause judgment to be entered if he can show that there is no defence. 
That can be shown by affidavit on the part of the plaintiff himself. 
If the defendant does not answer that, judgment goes against him. He 
may answer by affidavit, he may be examined under oath before a Master 
on his affidavit, and if it appears there is really no question at all to be 
tried, and the appearance is simply for the purpose of delay, the appear- 
ance is stricken out and judgment entered. If there is a plausible 
case to be tried, the Courts do not cause the appearance to be struck 
out. A statement of claim is delivered by the plaintiff, the statement of 
claim corresponding to the old bill of complaint in equity or to the 
declaration in the common-law courts. The statement of claim, accord- 
ing to our rules, must set out facts, not conclusions of law. All 
the facts upon which the plaintiff desires to base any claim must 
be set out and the statement of claim is divided up into paragraphs 
for convenience. Now, it may be that the statement of claim does 
not disclose any cause of action. Demurrers in form are abolished ; 
but we have demurrers in substance. Application may be made 
to the Court to strike out the statement of claim as disclosing no 
cause of action; and if that appear, judgment will be entered for 
defendant by the Court, nnless the plaintiff is in position to amend. 
After the statement of claim has been delivered and is not demurrable, 
using the old expression, 7.¢., it cannot be struck out, the defendant may 
not be able to answer, may not be in a position to understand precisely 
what the plaintiff's claim is, and he may demand particulars. If 
particulars are not furnished he may have particulars ordered by the 
Master or Judge. Then he serves and files a statement of defence. The 
statement of defence must set out also the facts on which the defendant 
relies for a defence. Iam sorry to say—perhaps I ought not to say 
that Iam sorry, because I am one of those who have, collectively, a 
right to change it if thought fit—I am sorry to say that in our practice 
where an allegation in the statement of claim is not specifically admitted 
it is taken to be denied. I think very much better is the English prac- 
tice in which every allegation in the statement of claim is taken as true 
unless it be specifically denied. 
