Case Name: VANDERGRIFT against PIERSON
Court: New Jersey Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: New Jersey
Decision Date: 1813-02
Citations: 3 N.J.L. 992
Docket Number: 
Parties: VANDERGRIFT against PIERSON.
Judges: 
Reporter: New Jersey Law Reports
Volume: 3
Pages: 546–546

Head Matter:
VANDERGRIFT against PIERSON.
ON CERTIORARI.
Defendant may confess judgment in plaintiff's absence, after complaint filed with the justice.
The transcript of the record of the justice, after stating the action, commenced as follows; — Plaintiff [723] having filed a note of hand, (together with his declaration) the defendant appeared, and requested me to render .judgment against him in favor of the plaintiff, for the note described in the declaration. I therefore, &c., rendering judgment in the usual form. It was contended on behalf of the plaintiff in error, who was the defendant below, that there was no regular appearance of the parties before the justice; that without an institution of a suit by process, or voluntary appearance of the parties before the justice, and consenting to the entering .an action, no judgment could be rendered; that the defendant going before the justice alone, and consenting to a judgment being entered against him, no action having been commenced, was not sufficient to support a judgment.

Opinion:
By the Court.
The plaintiff goes before the justice and files his complaint regularly; and the defendant appears and confesses the action, and requests that judgment may be rendered against him. We think that sufficient.
Let the judgment be affirmed.