DEFECT

Flawed. Lacking. Insufficient. 1. The want of something required by law. 2. It is a general rule that pleadings shall have these two requisites; 1. A matter sufficient in law. 2. That it be deduced and expressed according to the forms of law. The want of either of these is a defect. 3. Defects in matters of substance cannot be cured, because it does not appear that the plaintiff is entitled to recover; but when the defects are in matter of form, they are cured by a verdict in favor of the party who committed them. The want or absence of some legal requisite; deficiency; imperfection; insufficiency.Defect of form. An imperfection in the style, manner, arrangement, or non-essential parts of a legal instrument, plea, indictment, etc., as distinguished from a “defect of substance.” See infra. Defect of parties. In pleading and practice. Insufficiency of the parties before a court in any given proceeding to give it jurisdiction and authority to decide the controversy, arising from the omission or failus to join plaintiffs or defendants who should have been brought in; never applied to a superfluity of parties or the improper addition of plaintiffs or defendants. Mader v. Piano Mfg. to., 17 S. D. 553, 97 N. W. 843; Railroad Co. v. Schuyler, 17 N. Y. 603; Palmer v. Davis, 28 N. Y. 245; Beach v. Water Co., 25 Mont. 379, 65 Pac. Ill; Weatherby v. Meiklejohn, 61 Wis. 67, 20 N. W. 374. Defect of substance. An imperfection in the body or substantive part of a legal instrument, plea, indictment, etc., consisting in the omission of something which is essential to be set forth.