6 How. Pr. 25 | N.Y. Sup. Ct. | 1851
This case comes before the court upon a common law certiorari, brought to review the judgment and proceedings of the Court of Sessions of Tioga county in a case of bastardy, and I am inclined to think that the most if not all of the questions raised upon this return are not within the province of this writ to review. The first question, therefore, which I propose to consider in the case is as to the nature and office of this writ, and it can not be denied by any one who will take the trouble to look into the cases upon this subject in this court, that very loose language has sometimes been employed by judges in regard to this subject. I think, however, we shall have no diffi
In the case of The People vs. The Mayor, &c. of New York (2 Hill, 9, 11), Judge Bronson said “the writ of certiorari, when issued for the purpose of enabling this court to exercise its supervisory power over inferior tribunals, removes nothing but the record or other entry in the nature of the record of the proceedings in the court below, and if the return contains any thing more it can not be regarded. This rule is in perfect accordance with the writ of error at common law, for a writ of error at common law could not reach any objection arising de hors the record (15 W.R. 583). Applying this rule as to the scope and office of this writ, I do not see how the point raised upon this return can avail the plaintiff. The fact whether the mother of this child was in indigent circumstances or not, can only be determined by an examination of the evidence given upon the trial, and when determined can not be reviewed upon this writ; and it is very clear, I think, that this court can not review the admission or rejection of evidence upon the trial upon this writ.
This seems to follow from the rule which we have drawn from the cases, and was expressly adjudged in the case of The People vs. the First Judge of Columbia (2 Hill, 398). The Court of Sessions assumed to modify the order of filiation in regard to the costs on the application of the defendant, and this is now assigned by him as error. It may be quite questionable whether