Case Name: HUBBEL v. BALDWIN
Court: Supreme Court of Ohio
Jurisdiction: Ohio
Decision Date: 1832-08
Citations: 1 Ohio Ch. 86
Docket Number: 
Parties: HUBBEL v. BALDWIN.
Judges: 
Reporter: Reports of cases at law and in chancery Ohio
Volume: 1
Pages: 86–87

Head Matter:
HUBBEL v. BALDWIN.
Error — justices—court of record — statutory awards, and aibitration — rule, and day in -court.
A justice of the peace, is not a court of record, within the statute authorizing courts of record to proceed by rule of court to enforce statutory awards.
An esc parte judgment is not good; a defendant must have notice, and day in court.
Error to the Common Pleas. The plaintiff in error had entered into an arbitration bond, conditioned to abide the award of B. B. & B. arbitrators, to be made a rule of court before L. Peat, a justice of the peace. The arbitrators made an award, which was produced to justice Peat, and he, without notice to the plaintiff in error, entered judgment upon it against him. This judgment was removed by certiorari to the Court of Common Pleas, and was affirmed by that court. To reverse this affirming judgment of the Common Pleas, this writ of error is prosecuted.

Opinion:
Wright, J.
The act of assembly authorizes an award of arbitrators, made pursuant to a submission under arbitration bonds, to be made a rule of any court of record. That description, in the sense used in the act, does not include a justice's court. By the terms, courts of record, the legislature is understood as intending to describe a higher court than that of a justice of the peace; a court with a common seal, whose proceedings are according to the course of the common law, where the proceedings are in writing, and where a full final record of the judgments is made. Such courts proceed by rule sometimes — justices do not. The arbitration bond in this case, therefore, is not taken under the statute, nor is the award a statutory one. No power is acquired under the act, to enter an ex parte judgment. If it were a statutory submission bond and award, no judgment could be entered on the award without a rule and notice, giving the party to be charged, day in court. It is not necessary to decide whether this bond is a good common law bond.
The judgment of the Court of Common Pleas is reversed, with costs.