6 S.E.2d 704 | Ga. | 1939
An entry on the issue docket of a superior court that a case is settled is prima facie true, and can not be collaterally attacked; but, in the absence of a signed order entered on the minutes of the court, such docket entry does not constitute a dismissal of the case, and may be set aside in a direct proceeding for that purpose, in the exercise of the authority of the court to correct its records to make them speak the truth.
The entries on the docket of the superior court in the following language, "settled at plaintiffs' costs . . July adjourned term, 1936," when considered as evidence, constitute prima facie proof that the cases referred to have been settled. They are not subject to collateral attack. Armstrong v.Lewis,
This record contains an assignment of error upon a ruling made in a direct attack on the docket entries of the trial court. The Code, § 24-104, par. 6, in enumerating the powers of courts, declares that every court has power "to amend and control its processes and orders, so as to make them comformable to law and justice; and to amend its own records, so as to make them conform to the truth." This power of the courts to amend their records is again asserted in § 81-1202, where it is declared that "It is a power incident to all courts to correct their own proceedings before final judgment." If the docket entries here involved did not speak the truth, there can be no doubt of the authority and the duty of the trial court, in a proper proceeding, to so alter or amend them as to make the record speak the truth. SeeBeecher v. Carter,
Judgment affirmed. All the Justices concur.