Also known as: narratio · narration · declaration · count
Written by attorneys — see sources below.
A formal declaration or complaint filed in a legal pleading.
Norman Nash owns a parcel of land. He executes a signed statement declaring that he now holds the land as trustee for his children. The statement identifies the land with particularity. Under the applicable statute this narr. alone creates a valid trust without any transfer to a third party.
Nina Nielsen files a complaint alleging breach of contract and fraud arising from two separate transactions. She places each claim in its own numbered paragraph limited to a single set of facts. The later paragraphs refer back by number to earlier ones to avoid repetition and promote clarity in the narr.
Navarro Industries records a declaration imposing use restrictions on every lot in a new subdivision. The declaration states that the restrictions run with the land for the benefit of all lots. When the first lot is sold the restrictions become servitudes enforceable by and against all subsequent purchasers via the recorded narr.
Nancy Nelson files a petition seeking dissolution of her marriage to Neville Norton. The caption reads In re the Marriage of Nancy Nelson and Neville Norton. The court accepts the petition because the title follows the required statutory form for the narr.
A railroad company challenges a city ordinance that bars construction above its terminal. The company argues the restriction constitutes a taking. The Court examines whether the regulation denies the owner all economically viable use or interferes with distinct investment-backed expectations stated in the narr.
In 1965 New York City enacted the Landmarks Preservation Law, which created an eleven-member Landmarks Preservation Commission and authorized it to designate buildings at least thirty years old that possess special historical or aesthetic interest. The law required owners of designated landmarks to obtain Commission approval before altering exterior architectural features and imposed an affirmative duty to keep those features in good repair. In August 1967 the Commission designated Grand Central Terminal a landmark and the city tax block it occupies a landmark site; the Board of Estimate confirmed the designation the following month. Penn Central Transportation Co. and its affiliates owned the Terminal, an eight-story Beaux-Arts structure completed in 1913 that served as the main station for the New York Central and Harlem lines. On January 22, 1968, Penn Central entered a fifty-year renewable lease with UGP Properties, Inc., under which UGP agreed to construct a multistory office building cantilevered above the Terminal and to pay Penn Central at least three million dollars annually after construction. Penn Central and UGP submitted two plans prepared by architect Marcel Breuer: Breuer I, a fifty-five-story tower resting on the Terminal roof, and Breuer II Revised, a fifty-three-story building that would have removed part of the 42d Street facade. After four days of hearings at which over 80 witnesses testified, the Commission denied this application as to both proposals. Penn Central filed suit in New York Supreme Court, Trial Term, seeking a declaratory judgment, injunctive relief, and damages for a temporary taking. The trial court granted the injunctive and declaratory relief. The Appellate Division reversed, holding that Penn Central had failed to prove deprivation of all reasonable beneficial use. The New York Court of Appeals affirmed, concluding that the Terminal could still earn a reasonable return and that transferable development rights provided significant compensation. The Supreme Court noted probable jurisdiction.
View caseA married couple challenges a state statute criminalizing the use of contraceptives. They argue the law invades a zone of privacy protected by the Constitution. The Court recognizes that specific guarantees in the Bill of Rights create penumbras that protect marital privacy as pleaded in the narr.
Estelle Griswold served as Executive Director of the Planned Parenthood League of Connecticut. Dr. C. Lee Buxton served as the League's Medical Director and was a professor at Yale Medical School. Together they opened and operated a center in New Haven that was open from November 1 to November 10, 1961. At the center they gave information, instruction, and medical advice to married persons as to the means of preventing conception. They examined the wife and prescribed the best contraceptive device or material for her use. Fees were usually charged, although some couples were serviced free. The statutes involved were sections 53-32 and 54-196 of the General Statutes of Connecticut (1958 rev.). Section 53-32 made it a crime to use any drug, medicinal article or instrument for the purpose of preventing conception. Section 54-196 punished accessories as principals. The appellants were found guilty as accessories and fined $100 each. The Appellate Division of the Circuit Court affirmed the convictions. The Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut affirmed that judgment in State v. Griswold, 151 Conn. 544, 200 A. 2d 479. The United States Supreme Court noted probable jurisdiction. The appellants asserted standing to raise the constitutional rights of the married persons with whom they had a professional relationship. A criminal conviction for serving married couples removes doubts about case or controversy. The rights of husband and wife would be diluted unless considered in a suit involving those who have this kind of confidential relation to them.
View caseNarr. is the standard abbreviation for narratio, the formal declaration or complaint that begins a lawsuit.
Under the Uniform Trust Code a settlor may create a trust simply by declaring in a signed writing that identifiable property is now held in trust.
Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 10(b) requires numbered paragraphs so that each claim rests on a single set of circumstances and later pleadings can refer to them by number.
…For this reason, among others, many persons did not deem homosexuals to have dignity in their own distinct identity. A truthful declaration by same-sex couples of what was in their hearts had to remain unspoken. Even when a greater awareness of the humanity and integrity of homosexual persons came in the period after World War…