Case ID: scl_19/html/0420-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "\n      Johnson, J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Wm. Maybin v. Jemima Virgin.
    ¿Magistrates fideícvidenee timta .judgment ed, as there is no judgments.
    
      Newberry — Fall Term, 1833.
    
      Sum. pro. on a magistrate’s judgment. The magis-trate was introduced as a witness, and proved that pe «.ave judgment for the plaintiff against the defendant, and entered it on a judgment booit which ne The plaintiff then offered to give in evidence, magistrate’s execution, which,it was contended, was sufficient proof that a judgment had been recovered. The defendant objected, and required that the judgement book should be produced, and the plaintiff riot being able to do this, Mr. Justice O’Neall, (sitting for Mr. Justice Richardson) ordered a non-suit, which the plaintiff now moves to set aside.
   Johnson, J.

delivered the opinion of the court.

There is no law which requires a magistrate to make a record of his judgments; and I learn from Mr. Rauls, the messenger of the court, an old and intelligent magis-irate of the district, that magistrates do not generally keep such memorials of their proceedings, and when they do, they can only be considered as private me-moranda. The execution on the contrary, is an official act, constituting the highest evidence of the facts stated in it, and ought to have been received in evidence.

The nonsuit is therefore set aside, and a new trial granted.

Harper, J. concurred.