1 Pears. 27 | Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Dauphin County | 1852
The proceedings of the justice in this case appear on the record to be perfectly regular, and the certiorari did not issue for more than twenty days after the rendition of the judgment, if we may judge from the transcript. Can this judgment be impeached? It is very certain that it cannot be done collaterally; but depositions are offered for the purpose of impeaching it directly, and showing that the same was fraudulently and improperly entered by the justice at a time long subsequent to that stated on the docket. As a general rule, no depositions can be received to sustain or overturn the proceedings of a justice when brought before the court on a certiorari, but the same must be judged of by the record alone. To this rule there are admitted exceptions. You may show that the magistrate had, or had not jurisdiction; that the case was pending before another justice. You may also show corruption or partiality on the part of the justice; or that his docket was falsely kept. The court must go into inquiries, per testes, to show that the magistrate has exceeded his jurisdiction, or acted partially or corruptly, or has made up a false record. To refuse this would, in many cases, be shutting out the only means of light. A justice might make a regular entry of the issuing and return of a summons, the appearance or default of a party, and the rendition of a judgment, when, in fact, no summons had issued, the party never had notice, and the service of an execution was his first knowledge of the claim. This might be done by a magistrate who was perfectly irresponsible. Although the act of 1810 forbids the setting aside of any judgment on a certiorari, unless the same was issued within twenty days after the rendition of the judgment, yet that can only apply to such as are publicly rendered pursuant to the act of Assembly, and of which the defendant had notice. The legislature never intended to exclude an examination from such as were corruptly and secretly entered without notice; and still less would the law debar a party from inquiring into the actual time of entering the judgment, although it might lead to a contradiction of the record. The most solemn records of the highest courts of judicature in the country may be impeached for actual fraud. The question presented by the depositions is one of actual fraud. Whether a false entry was or was not made on the docket of the justice of a