Case Name: Dolloff versus Hartwell & al.
Court: Maine Supreme Judicial Court
Jurisdiction: Maine
Decision Date: 1854
Citations: 38 Me. 54
Docket Number: 
Parties: Dolloff versus Hartwell & al.
Judges: Shepley, C. J., and Appleton and Cutting, J. J.,. concurred.
Reporter: Maine Reports
Volume: 38
Pages: 54–55

Head Matter:
Dolloff versus Hartwell & al.
The record of a justice of the peace cannot he impeached by parol testimony.
An appeal from the judgment of a justice, without a recognizance by the party appealing, is nugatory and void.
On motion, such an action will be dismissed, and the costs of Court are recoverable by the party aggrieved.
On Exceptions from Nisi Prius, Rice, J., presiding.
Assumpsit on a note of hand, tried before a justice, and the plaintiff recovered a judgment.
The defendants claimed an appeal and the action was entered in the Supreme Judicial Court and continued.
The record of the justice stated that the defendants appealed, that the plaintiff waived surety, and no recognizance was entered into by the defendants as principals, either in person or by attorney.
At the second term the plaintiff moved that the action be dismissed for want of an appeal.
The defendants objected to the record as untrue and extra-judicial, and offered to prove by witnesses, that the defendants appeared by attorney on the day the appeal was taken, and offered to recognize, and that the record was untrue.
The testimony was excluded, the action dismissed, and defendants excepted.
O. L. Currier, in support of the exceptions.
Kempton, contra.

Opinion:
Tenney, J.
— By the record of the justice of the peace, before whom the action was brought and tried, it appears, that from the judgment for the plaintiff, the defendants claimed an appeal, and sureties were waived; but no recognizance whatever was taken.
The record of the justice cannot be impeached in the mode attempted. Gammon v. Chandler, 30 Maine, 152. Litigation terminated upon the rendition of judgment in the justice court, which was conclusive between the parties for want of a recognizance. Hilton v. Longley, 30 Maine, 220.
All controversy having ended before the parties came into this Court, the plaintiff finally prevails, in the matter before it; and is entitled to costs, so far as they have accrued here. Harris v. Hutchins, 28 Maine, 102.
Exceptions overruled.
Shepley, C. J., and Appleton and Cutting, J. J.,. concurred.