Defect

The want of something required by law.

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.

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.
   

This entry contains material from Bouvier's Legal Dictionary, a work published in the 1850's.