common counts

The actual "causes of action" that could be pleaded through assumpsit were known as the "common counts," and could be pleaded in a very terse, compact style.

However, many states continue to recognize assumpsit as a common law or statutory cause of action or allow the use of the old "common counts" as causes of action.

For example, California has a special "common counts" cause of action form (to be attached to an optional form complaint) based directly on the old common counts that were pleaded in assumpsit.

But their determination could not affect the judgment, for the common counts were sufficient under the statutes of Illinois to support the judgment without reference to any question of the legal authority to issue the bonds described in the first count.

In 1986 the victim of a phony investment scheme in Washington won $134,000, three times his actual damages, from a money manager under a RICO claim that was added to more common counts of breach of contract.