england-and-wales
What meant Lord Mansfield by &#39;form&#39;, &#39;turn parties around upon frivolous objections&#39;, and &#39;ruin&#39;?
<ol>
<li><p>What does 'form' mean? Excessive formality, e.g. completing the wrong form or pleading the wrong cause of action?</p></li>
<li><p>I can't guess the meaning.</p></li>
<li><p>How do 1 and 2 ruin and destroy both?</p></li>
</ol>

<p><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=wW0sAQAAMAAJ&amp;pg=PA966&amp;lpg=PA966&amp;dq=%22i+never+like+to+entangle+justice+in+matters+of+form%22&amp;source=bl&amp;ots=VPlYAL4QJh&amp;sig=EH3MMrTullWrYp9_Ll7j-j_LOa8&amp;hl=en&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=0ahUKEwiN2oW0zKHWAhXH44MKHTogBI8Q6AEIMDAD#v=onepage&amp;q=%22i%20never%20like%20to%20entangle%20justice%20in%20matters%20of%20form%22&amp;f=false" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Primary Source</a>. Secondary Sources: </p>

<p><a href="https://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/1107662761" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><em>Laughing at the Gods: Great Judges and How They Made the Common Law</em></a>, p. 32 Middle.</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>  Although Mansfield's more expansive judicial style is 
  hardly considered novel or original today, its innovative and 
  almost groundbreaking quality at the time cannot be exag- 
  gerated. Judges tended to see themselves as operating under 
  more prosaic restrictions than the poetic Mansfield would 
  allow. He was unafraid to irrigate the dry soil of legal rules 
  with more invigorating waters. For instance, in <em>Trueman v. 
  Fenton</em> in 1777, he opined that "<strong>I never like to entangle 
  justice in matters of 
  [1.] form [End of 1.] and<br>
  [2.]      to turn parties around upon frivolous objections [End of 2.]<br>
  where I can avoid it —<br>
  [3.] it only tends to 
  the ruin and destruction of both. [End of 3.]</strong>"<br>
  Consequently, Mansfield 
  believed not that he was making new law but that he was 
  liberating the real and abiding principles of the common 
  law from the enchainment of earlier mistaken characteri- 
  zations. As he put it in <em>Pugh v. Duke of Leeds</em> in the same 
  year, the proper judicial task was "not to make new law, but 
  to vindicate the old from misrepresentation." Although he 
  did not go so far as to declare that unjust rules could not be 
  law (as some of his later judicial heirs, like Tom Denning, 
  have done), he did work his hardest to make law and justice 
  coalesce. </p>
</blockquote>

<p><em>Lord Mansfield: Justice in the Age of Reason</em>, <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=7yy3BgAAQBAJ&amp;lpg=PA229&amp;ots=lyXh5JaMjs&amp;dq=%22i%20never%20like%20to%20entangle%20justice%20in%20matters%20of%20form%22&amp;pg=PA229#v=onepage&amp;q=%22i%20never%20like%20to%20entangle%20justice%20in%20matters%20of%20form%22&amp;f=false" rel="nofollow noreferrer">p. 229 Middle</a>.</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>  Mansfield's decisions in commercial cases, as in other areas of the law, 
  were intensely practical. Where he thought it necessary or appropriate, he 
  abandoned the formality Of traditional common law pleading rules in order 
  to provide legal protection to a broad range of commercial assets, transactions, and practices.<sup>70</sup> His aim was to get as quickly as possible to the essential issue or issues involved in a dispute and to resolve the dispute in 
  accordance with principles Of justice and fair dealing. He Stated in one opinion: "<strong>I never like to entangle justice in matters of form, and to turn parties 
  round on frivolous objections where I can avoid it. It only tends to the ruin 
  and destruction of both</strong> ... The question therefore ... is ... whether the facts 
  support the merits of the defendant's plea."<sup>71</sup></p>
</blockquote>

<p>He means <a href="http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/%22Equity+regards+substance+rather+than+form.%22" rel="nofollow noreferrer">this</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>&quot;Equity regards substance rather than form.&quot;</strong></p>
<p>Equity will not permit justice to be withheld just because of a technicality. Formalities that frustrate justice will be disregarded and a better approach found for each case. Equity enforces the spirit rather than the letter of the law alone.</p>
</blockquote>
