Citation Numbers: 180 Ala. 362, 61 So. 268
Judges: Graffenrie
Filed Date: 2/13/1913
Status: Precedential
Modified Date: 7/27/2022
This was an action for unlawful detainer. It was brought in a justice’s court by Mrs. C. C. Walters against O. P. Nicholson to recover the possession of certain lands and damages for their detention. When the case was called for trial by the justice of the peace, the parties to the suit were present, and the justice rendered a judgment, which the reporter will set out in his statement of the facts of this case. The judgment rendered by the justice of the peace was, in so far as it ascertained that Nicholson was guilty of an unlawful detainer of the lands described in the complaint, and in so far as it ordered that Nicholson restore to Mrs. Walters the possession of the lands, a judgment by confession. That part of the judgment is separable from the judgment which was rendered fixing the amount of the damages; and the judgment ascertaining the fact of the unlawful detainer of the land, and ordering that its possession be surrendered to Mrs. Walters, is binding upon Nicholson; and under our statute (Code 1907, § 2892), as to that part of the judgment, Nicholson is without remedy. A judgment by confession is, under the above statute, and was at common law, a release of errors.—Caller v. Denson, Minor, 19; Allen v. White & Norris, Minor, 365.
In the case of Nichols v. Hewit, 4 Johns. (N. Y.) 423, the parties to the suit appeared before the justice of the peace, agreed to submit their cause to the arbitrament of the justice and another person, that their award should be final and conclusive, and that the justice should enter a judgment for the sum awarded. The arbiters agreed upon the award; the justice asked the parties, before making it known to them what award had been agreed upon, whether a judgment should be entered agreeably to the award; and the parties assented thereto. The justice thereupon entered a judgment for the sum of 11 cents in favor of Hewit and for the costs. Said the Supreme Court: “The defendant below confessed judgment for the amount of an award before it was published; and then the justice declared it to be in favor of the defendant in error, for 11 cents, and
We are therefore of opinion that the trial court committed error in dismissing Nicholson’s appeal. An order is therefore here made reversing said judgment of dismissal. The cause is ordered to be restored to the docket of said court below in accordance with this opinion.
Reversed and remanded.