Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That in trials of actions upon contracts, express or implied, when the action is brought by partners, or by joint payees or obligees, it shall not be necessary for the plaintiff, in order to maintain any such action, to prove the names of the co-partners or the christian names of such joint payees of obligees, but the names of such co-partners, joint payees[,] or obligees, shall be presumed to be truly set forth in the declaration or petition: Provided, That nothing herein contained shall prevent the defendant in any such action from pleading, in abatement as heretofore, or of proving, on the trial, either that more persons ought to have been plaintiffs, or that more persons have been made plaintiffs, than have a legal right to sue.

Sec. 2. On actions against two or more defendants upon contracts in writing, alleged to have been made or executed by such defendants as partners or otherwise, proof of the joint liability of the defendants shall not be required to entitle the plaintiff to judgment, unless such proof shall be rendered necessary by pleading in abatement, or the filing of pleas denying the execution of such writing, verified by affidavit, as required by the “Act concerning practice in courts of law,” approved on the twenty-ninth day of January, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-seven.

Approved, March 2, 1839.2