Case Name: TORRENCE and BLACK against VAN EMBURG
Court: New Jersey Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: New Jersey
Decision Date: 1806-09
Citations: 2 N.J.L. 106
Docket Number: 
Parties: [*] TORRENCE and BLACK against VAN EMBURG.
Judges: 
Reporter: New Jersey Law Reports
Volume: 2
Pages: 98–98

Head Matter:
[*] TORRENCE and BLACK against VAN EMBURG.
OH CERTIORARI.
Reversal, judgment in defendant’s absence, without proof.
The state of demand, sent up by the justice, is as follows:
Several adjournments were had; but at the time judgment was obtained, the defendant did not appear, and the justice made the following entry on his docket: The plaintiff appeared agreeable to adjournment, and defendant did not; and I gave judgment by default, for the plaintiff, twenty-two dollars and fifty cents, and one dollar and twenty cents costs.

Opinion:
By the Court.
— Here was a trial in the absence of the defendant, and no witness examined; the state of demand was not susceptible of proof in any other way than by witnesses, or the confession of the defendant. The defendant not being present, could have made no confession. So that here is a judgment, without evidence. It must therefore be reversed.