common counts

from Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856)
COMMON COUNTS. Certain general counts, not founded on any special contract, 
which are introduced in a declaration, for the purpose of preventing a 
defeat of a just right by the accidental variance of the evidence. These are 
in an action of assumpsit; counts founded on express or implied promises to 
pay money in consideration of a precedent debt, and are of four 
descriptions: 1. The indebitatus assumpsit; 2. The quantum meruit; 3. The 
quantum valebant; and, 4. The account stated. 
    

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