IMMATERIAL. What is not essential; unimportant what is not requisite1; what is informal; as, an immaterial averment, an immaterial issue.
2. When a witness deposes2 to something immaterial, which is false, although he is guilty of perjury3 in foro conscientiae, he cannot be punished for perjury. 2 Russ. on Cr. 521; 1 Hawk4. b. 1, c. 69, s. 8; Bac. Ab. Perjury, A.
IMMATERIAL AVERMENT. One alleging5 with needless particularity or unnecessary circumstances, what is material and requisite, and which, properly, might have been stated more generally, or without such circumstances or particulars; or, in other words, it, is a statement of unnecessary particulars, in connexion with, and as descriptive of, what is material. Gould on Pl. c. 3, 186.
2. It is highly improper6 to introduce immaterial averments, because, when they are made, they must be proved; as, if, a plaintiff declare for rent on a demise7 which is described as reserving a certain annual rent, payable8 "by four even and equal quarterly payments," &c.; and on the trial it appears that there was no stipulation9 with regard to the time or times of payment of the rents, the plaintiff cannot recover. The averment as to the time, though it need not have been made, yet it must be proved, and the plaintiff having failed in this, he cannot recover; as there is a variance10 between the contract declared upon and the contract proved. Dougl. 665.
3. But when the immaterial averment is such that it may be struck out of the declaration, without striking out at the same time the cause of action, and when there is no variance between the contract as, laid in the declaration and that proved, immaterial averments then need not be proved. Gould on Pl. C. 3, 188.
lMMATERIAL ISSUE. One taken on a point not proper to decide the action; for example, if in an action of debt on bond, conditioned for the payment of ten dollars and fifty cents at a certain day, the defend ant pleads the payment of ten dollars according to the form of the condition, and the plaintiff, instead of demurring11, tenders issue upon the payment, it is manifest that, whether this issue be found for the plaintiff or the defendant12, it will remain equally uncertain whether the plaintiff is entitled to maintain his action, or not; for, in an action for the penalty of a bond, conditioned to pay a certain sum, the only material question is, whether the exact sum were paid or not, and the question of payment of a part is a question quite beside the legal merits. Hob. 113; 5 Taunt13. 386.
IMMEDIATE14. That which is produced directly by the act to which it is ascribed, without the intervention15 or agency of any distinct intermediate cause.
2. For immediate injuries the remedy is trespass16; for those which are consequential17, an action on the case. 11 Mass. R. 59, 137, 525; 1 & 2 Ohio R. 342; 6 S. & R. 348; 18 John. 257; 19 John. 381; 2 H. & M. 423; 1 Yeates, R. 586; 12 S & R. 210; Coxe, R. 339; Harper's R. 113; 6 Call's R . 44; 1 Marsh18. R. 194.
3. When an immediate injury is caused by negligence19, the injured party may elect to regard the negligence as the immediate cause of action, and declare in case; or to consider the act itself as the immediate injury, and sue in trespass. 14 John. 432; 6 Cowen, 342; 3 N. H. Rep. 465; sed vide 3 Conn. 64; 2 Bos. & Pull. New Rep. by Day, 448, note. See Cause.
IMMEMORIAL. That which commences beyond the time of memory. Vide Memory, time of. IMMEMORIAL POSSESSION. In Louisiana, by this term is understood that of which no man living has seen the beginning, and the existence of which he has learned from his elders. Civ. Code of Lo. art. 762; 2 M. R. 214; 7 L. R. 46; 3 Toull. p. 410; Poth. Contr. de Societ«, n. 244; 3 Bouv. Inst. n. 3069, note.
IMMIGRATION. The removing into one place from another. It differs from emigration, which is the moving from one place into another. Vide Emigration.
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