11 N.C. 283 | N.C. | 1826
Lead Opinion
On the trial, and after the jury had been charged with the cause, the defendant's attorney moved for leave to add a special plea that the judgment on which the present warrant had been brought was rendered in the county of Franklin by a justice of the county of Granville; but the presiding judge refused the leave asked. The plaintiff then produced and duly proved the original warrant, the judgment thereon against the defendant Wright, the stay of execution by the defendant Parrish, on which the present suit was founded. These all appeared to be perfectly regular; the judgment appeared to have been confessed by the defendant Wright.
The defendant then called as a witness Anderson Paschall, the justice before whom the judgment appeared to have been confessed, and (284) asked him where the said judgment was confessed; upon which defendant's counsel, being asked to state the purpose and show the relevancy of his inquiry, said that he expected to show by this witness that the judgment was confessed at a place called Plank Chapel, and then by another witness that Plank Chapel was in Franklin County.
Plaintiff's counsel then objected to the question put to Paschall, and the court sustained the objection. There was a verdict for the plaintiff, and a motion by defendant for a new trial, first, for the refusal to permit the special plea to be added, and, second, for the rejection of Paschall's evidence. Motion overruled and judgment rendered, from which the defendant Parrish appealed.
This was an action originating by way of warrant, in a paper purporting to be a judgment rendered by a justice of the peace in the county of Granville. On the trial the defendant offered to plead and prove that the judgment was rendered in the county of Franklin by a justice of Granville; the plea and evidence were rejected, and the propriety of this rejection is now argued on the authority of Bain v. Hunt,
In this case the point in contest is altogether different; it relates solely to the existence of the judgment set up; the defendant does not object to it because it is unjust or founded on a misconception of the merits of the case, for these inquiries can clearly never be made in an original suit founded on the judgment; but because no judgment (285) was given. It is impossible to apply the rules of evidence, established in relation to the authentication of records of courts of justice to the proceedings before magistrates. They cannot be decided on by inspection, they have no seals, they keep no copies of their proceedings, and the knowledge of their official existence is necessarily confined to the county of their residence. No provision is made by law for the authentication of their judgment, except in one instance; and, in the absence of such legislative provision, the inquiry must continue to be conducted, as it heretofore has been, by proof of the justice's handwriting either by himself or others, and by proof that the judgment was given by him, then a justice, within the limits of his jurisdiction. All these considerations arise out of the issue to be decided; for if he were not a magistrate in the county where the judgment was rendered, at the time of its rendition, there is consequently no such record, and the issue is maintained on the part of the defendant.
If the inquiry as to the jurisdiction is excluded, the same rule applies to the exclusion of an inquiry into the official character of the individual who holds himself out to the public as a justice of the peace; and the consequence will be that any individual may assume that character, and sign papers which shall have the force of judgments against other persons, simply on the proof of his handwriting, and that many such papers had been signed by him. When so much importance is attached to the judgment of magistrates as to render them unexaminable in another suit, their existence and authenticity ought to be established beyond controversy; and since the extensive civil jurisdiction of magistrates in this State has placed their judgments on an anomalous footing, and beyond the strict application of the rules of evidence pertaining to the regular judgments of courts, their legal existence ought to be ascertained by every reasonable inquiry before they are ultimately enforced.
For these reasons I think the evidence offered ought to have been received, and that there should be a new trial.
Addendum
It cannot be seriously contended that the judge (286) erred in refusing to suffer a plea to be entered, after the jury were impaneled. To do it or not depended upon his discretion under all the circumstances of the case. *128
The evidence offered to show that the judgment was confessed without the limits of the county of Granville, I think, ought to have been received.Bain v. Hunt,
Addendum
In saying, in Bain v. Hunt,
(289) But it does not follow, as was contended in the argument of this case, that justices' judgments are records because an action of assumpsit will not lie upon them, or because, being established, they are conclusive evidence of a debt, or because they are entirely unlike foreign judgments or judgments of inferior courts of England; for a bond is unlike all these; and yet it is not a record, and the expressions used by the Court in delivering the opinion in Hunt v. Bain must be understood in reference to the object in view — they relate to that quality which they possess in common with records of concluding the parties from denying their affirmations, and not as to the mode of proving them. It was never thought that they, like records, carried on their face such marks of their own verity that they proved themselves, and did not receive trial by jury, witnesses, or otherwise, but by themselves. It is very easy to define what a record is, but it is not so easy to declare which are courts of record and which are not. Sir Edward Coke's definition is more like pointing out which are the courts of record in England than giving the distinguishing feature of such court. Other definitions are equally unsatisfactory. Were I to attempt one, I fear that it would be still more faulty; but we may with safety say that a justice's court is not a court of record, because the law has not prescribed a mode of authenticating and perpetuating their proceedings, because their procedures have not upon their face those indicia of verity which prove themselves upon a bare inspeximus, and that they require the aid of proofsdehors themselves; and from their nature and multiplicity, being capable of being made anywhere in the county wherever the justice may be, and being under the private seal and signature of the justice only, it is not to be believed that the Legislature intended that they should be received as genuine and authentic without the aid of proof. But this interferes not with the verity of their affirmations after having been proven. It is said that it must be a record because it was said in Hunt v. Bain to be entirely unlike the proceedings of the inferior courts of (290) England, and also unlike the judgments of a foreign court; therefore, it must be the judgment of a court of record. Does it follow that the Legislature cannot create a new class of documents, or that of necessity, because it cannot fall into one class, it must fall into the other, where the two classes embraced only all those which were in existence at the time, and not those afterwards formed? It is admitted that if a document was formed it would fall into that class already in existence with which it possessed common properties; but if it possessed common properties with neither, it would then form a class of itself. Such is this justice's judgment: it is unlike the judgment of a court of record, because it wants the power of proving itself; it is unlike the judgment *131 of the inferior courts in England and foreign judgments, because it differs from them in that its affirmation cannot be controverted, and these differences arise from this, because as to a foreign court, we know nothing of the justice of their laws; we presume they are just, but we do not know; we will permit the adverse party to destroy that presumption by proof, and more especially as to the matter of fact, and even as to law, if they are shown to be unjust; we will not enforce an unjust judgment of a foreign court, but will lean much in favor of their justice, and call in even the aid of their policy to show them to be just. As to the judgments of the inferior courts of England, they are mostly local, governed by particular laws, frequently held by private individuals, and do not proceed according to the course of the common law, and, therefore, their decisions are not reviewed by means of writs of error, the proceedings in which are according to the laws of the land, and they alone form the rule of decision; there is no graduation from them up to the Superior Court. It is true, they are superseded occasionally by the King's Bench, by means of certain discretionary writs which issue, as it were, on the supplication and not on the application of the party. To make their decisions more than prima facie evidence would operate an injury on the suitors, because they could not have them examined in the (291) regular way or as a matter of right. As to the courts held by our justices, they are entirely different; they are governed by the general laws of the land, and there is a regular graduation to the court of supreme jurisdiction by way of appeal, which of itself must make their judgments conclusive.
I have taken up much time to explain Hunt v. Bain, and to show that this case is unaffected by it, because that case has been much misunderstood, and, if not corrected, might lead to consequences never contemplated by the Court. The justice's judgment not proving itself, must, therefore, be supported by proofs, and, therefore, may be shown to be different from what, upon the face, it purports to be; it may be shown to be a perfect nullity. The jurisdiction of justices of the peace being confined to the counties for which they are appointed, the Granville justice had no jurisdiction in Franklin. His acts within the latter county were those of a private individual. Proof, therefore, that the transaction took place in Franklin, before a person who had no jurisdiction to act as a justice of the peace in that county, destroys its apparent official character, and reduces it to a mere statement or certificate of a private individual, and such proof should have been received. The other objection, that the justice should not be heard to impeach it, cannot prevail. The rule is that a party shall not allege his own turpitude or departure from correctness as a protection; but there is no such rule in our law. *132 Infamy and interest are the only grounds of excluding a witness who has sufficient understanding to know and feel the obligations of an oath.
There must be a new trial.
PER CURIAM. New trial.
Cited: Hamilton v. Parrish,
(292)