surplusage

1. Surplus; excess.
2. An excess of words; verbiage.
3. Law. Irrelevant matter in a pleading.

noun

An amount or quantity beyond what is needed, desired, or appropriate: excess, fat, glut, overage, overflow, overmuch, overrun, overstock, oversupply, superfluity, surplus. See excess/insufficiency/enough.

Extraneous matter; impertinent, superfluous, or unnecessary.

In pleadings, surplusage refers to allegations that are not relevant to the cause of action. Under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, upon a motion, a court can strike from the pleadings any surplusage, such as an insufficient defense or an immaterial matter.

The noun has one meaning:

Meaning #1: a quantity much larger than is needed
  Synonyms: excess, surplus

In jurisprudence, surplusage is a useless statement completely irrelevant to the cause. Surplusages may be included in any declaration, plea, or claim. According to LectLaw ^[1]

“

if a man in his declaration, plea, etc., make mention of a thing which need, not be stated, but the matter set forth is grammatically right, and perfectly sensible, no advantage can be taken on demurrer. When, by an unnecessary allegation the plaintiff shows he has no cause of action, the defendant may demur. When the surplusage is not grammatically set right, or it is unintelligible and, no sense at all can be given it, or it be contradictory or repugnant to what is before alleged, the adversary may take advantage of it on special demurrer.

”

References

1. ^ Lectlaw

External links

• Surplusage at LectLaw.com

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