ALLEGATION

allegation,n.1. The act of declaring something to be true. 2. Something declared or asserted as

a matter of fact, esp. in a legal pleading; a party’s formal statement of a factual matter as being true

or provable, without its having yet been proved. — allege,vb.

defensive allegation.Eccles. law. A defendant’s response in an ecclesiastical action; specif., a

defendant’s  pleading  of  the  facts relied  upon  that  require  the  plaintiff’s  response  under  oath.  Cf.

primary allegation (2).

“The proceedings in the ecclesiastical courts are therefore regulated according to the practice

of the  civil and canon laws …. [T]heir ordinary course of proceeding is;  first, by citation, to call

the party injuring before them. Then … to set forth the complainant’s ground of complaint. To this

succeeds  the  defendant’s  answer  upon  oath;  when,  if  he  denies  or  extenuates  the  charge,  they

proceed  to  proofs  by  witnesses  examined,  and  their  depositions  taken  down  in  writing,  by  an

officer of the  court. If the  defendant has any circumstances to offer in his defence,  he  must also

propound them in what is called his defensive allegation, to which he is entitled in his turn to the

plaintiff’s answer upon oath, and may from thence proceed to proofs as well as his antagonist.” 3

William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England 100 (1768).

disjunctive allegation.A statement in a pleading or indictment that expresses something in the

alternative, usu. with the conjunction “or” <a charge that the defendant murdered or caused to be

murdered  is  a  disjunctive  alle-gation>.  [Cases:  Federal  Civil  Procedure    675;  Indictment  and

Information    72;  Pleading    20,  53.  C.J.S.  Indictments  and  Informations  §  152;  Pleading  §§

72–73, 150.]

material allegation.In a pleading, an assertion that is essential to the claim, charge, or defense

<a material alle-gation in a battery case is harmful or offensive contact with a person>.

primary allegation. 1. The principal charge made against an adversary in a legal proceeding.

2.Eccles. law. The opening  pleading in an action in ecclesiastical court. Cf. defensive allegation.

— Also termed primary plea.

3.Eccles. law. The entire statement of facts to be used in a contested suit. [Blacks Law 8th]