Case ID: njl_2/html/0098-02.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "By the Court.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

[†] COOPER and COLE against MULLIN.
    OH CERTIORARI.
    Reversal, judgment in defendant’s absence, without proof.
    Judgment was obtained below, for $51.83 and costs of suit, in the absence of the defendant, by default. The judgment was rendered on the demand of the [78] plaintiff, without proof, under an opinion common in some parts of the State, that in cases of judgment by default, the justice is to consider the state of demand of the plaintiff as confessed, or not denied, and give judgment accordingly, without any proof
   By the Court.

— This judgment cannot he supported. If the defendant doth not appear after he hath been legally summoned, the justice, unless he thinks proper to adjourn the trial, must proceed to hear and determine the cause in his absence; there is no cause of action confessed, or even tacitly acknowledged. The plaintiff must proceed to prove his demand, the same as in other cases; and if he fail in doing it, the justice must render judgment against him. Here is a judgment- without proof.

Let it be reversed.