Case Name: AUTEN against BRYAN
Court: New Jersey Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: New Jersey
Decision Date: 1806-11
Citations: 2 N.J.L. 135
Docket Number: 
Parties: AUTEN against BRYAN.
Judges: 
Reporter: New Jersey Law Reports
Volume: 2
Pages: 126–127

Head Matter:
AUTEN against BRYAN.
OX CERTIORARI.
Justice cannot adjourn beyond fifteen days from the return of summons.
The reason relied on for reversing the judgment below, was, that the justice adjourned the cause beyond fifteen days from the return of the summons, on the motion of the plaintiff below, the defendant in this court. It was contended, on the part of the plaintiff, that this was error; and on the part of the defendant, that if error, yet that it was cured by a subsequent trial, verdict and judgment.

Opinion:
By the Court.
— The act of Assembly limits the time to Avhich the justice can adjourn, by expressly enacting, that it shall not exceed fifteen days. Pat. 316, § 17. That there was in this case an intermediate adjournment, makes no dif íerence; for if the justice can adjourn from time to time, not exceeding fifteen days at a time, the limitation in the act of Assembly, may be defeated altogether. It may be that fifteen days is too short a time, and that a convenience would arise from allowing the justice a greater latitude. If that is so, it is not in our power to help it. We do not sit here to make laws; the judgment must therefore, be reversed.
Cited in Horner v. Hewlings, 8 Halst. 229.
Act Nov. 19, 1820, (Rev. 796), extends time of adjournment to 30 days. — Ed.