A

Quashing or setting it aside on account of some fatal defect in it. 3 Blackstone's Commentaries 168, 302. A plea in abatement is one method. Sometimes it is the duty of the court to abate a writ ex officio. Where the writ is a nullity, so that judgment thereon would be incurably erroneous, it is de facto abated. Case v. Humphrey, 6 Conn. 140 (1826).