482 
JUDGMENT. 
Your dilhonour 
Mangles true judgment, and bereaves the ftate 
Of that integrity which fhould become it. Shakefpeare. 
Judiciary law 5 ftatute.—If he hearken to thefe judgments, 
and keep and do them, the Lord thy God lhall keep unto 
thee the covenant. Deut. —The laftdoom: 
The dreadful judgment day 
So dreadful will not be as was his fight. Shakefpeare. 
Judgment, in law, is the fenten.ce pronounced by the 
court upon the matter contained in the record. Judg¬ 
ments are of four forts. Firlt, where the fa£ls are confeffed 
by the parties, and the law determined by the court; as 
in cafe of judgment upon demurrer: fecondly, where the 
law is admitted by the parties, and the fadls difputed as 
in the cafe of judgment on verdiB: thirdly, where both 
the fadl and the law arifing thereon are admitted by the 
defendant; which is the cafe of judgments by conftjfion or 
default; or, laljtly, where the plaintiff is convinced that 
either faff, or law, or both, are inefficient to fupport his 
a£lion, and therefore abandons or withdraws his profecu- 
tion ; which is the cafe in judgments upon a nonfuit or re¬ 
traxit. 
The judgment, though pronounced or awarded by the 
judges, is not their determination or fentence, but the 
determination and fentence of the law. It is the conclu¬ 
sion that naturally and regularly follows from the premifes 
•of law and faft, which Hands thus: Againft him who 
hath rode over my corn, I may recover damages by law ; 
but A hath rode over my corn ; therefore I lhall recover 
damages againft A. If the major propofition be denied, 
this is a demurrer in law : if the minor, it is then an iffue 
of fadt: but, if both be confelfed or determined to be 
right, the conciufion or judgment of the court cannot but 
follow. Which judgment or conciufion depends not there¬ 
fore on the arbitrary caprice of the judge, but on the fet¬ 
tled and invariable principles of juftice. The judgment, 
in fhort, is the remedy prefcribed by law for the redrefs 
of injuries; and the fuit or adtion is the vehicle or means 
of adminiltering it. What that remedy may be, is indeed 
the refult of deliberation and ftudy to point out; and 
therefore the flyle of the judgment is, not that it is de¬ 
creed or refolved by the court, for then the judgment 
might appear to be their own ; but, “ it is eonfidered, M 
tonfideratum rf per curiam, that the plaintiff do recover his 
damages, his debt, his poffeffion, and the like : which im¬ 
plies that the judgment is none of their own ; but the adt 
of the law, pronounced and declared by the court, after due 
deliberation and enquiry. See Blackft. Comment iii. 396. 
All thefe fpecies of judgments are either interlocutory 
or final. Interlocutory judgments are fucb as are given in 
the middle of a caufe, upon fome plea, proceeding, or de¬ 
fault, which is only intermediate, and does not finally de¬ 
termine or complete the fuit. Of this nature are all judg¬ 
ments for t-lie plaintiff upon pleas in abatement of the f uit 
nr adlion; in which it is eonfidered by the court, that the 
defendant do anfwer over, rcfpondsat oujler ; that is, put in 
a more fubftantial plea. 2 Sound. 30. It is eafy to obferve, 
that the judgment here given is not final, but merely in¬ 
terlocutory ; for there are afterwards farther proceedings 
to be had, when the defendant hath putin a better anfwer. 
But the interlocutory judgments, molt ufually fpoken of, 
are thofe incomplete judgments, whereby the right of the 
plaintiff is, indeed, eftablifhed, but the quantum of damages 
fuftained by him is not afcertained ; which is a matter 
that cannot be done without the intervention of a jury. 
This can only happen where the plaintiff recovers ; for, 
when judgment is given for the defendant, it is always 
complete as well as final. This fort of interlocutory judg¬ 
ment happens, in the firft place, where the defendant fuf- 
iers judgment to go againft him by default, or nihil elicit-, 
.3s if he puts in no plea at all to the plaintiff’s declaration : 
by ecjifefTion, or cognov.it aBionem, where he acknowledges 
the plainriff’s demand to be juft : or by non Jum informatus, 
when the defendant’s attorney declares, he has noinilrnc- 
tion to fay any thing in anfwer to the plaintiff, or In defence 
of his client; which is a fpecies of judgment by default. 
If thefe, or any of them, happen in atlions where the 
fpecifie thing fued for is recovered, as in adtion of debt 
for a fum certain, the judgment is abfolutely complete. 
But, where damages are to be recovered, a jury muft be call¬ 
ed in to affefs them; unlefs the defendants, to lave charges, 
will ccnfefs the whole damagesl aid in the declaration 
otherwife the entry of the judgment is, “ that the plaintiff 
ought to recover his damages (indefinitely) ; but, becaufe 
the court know not what damages the faid plaintiff hath 
fuftained, therefore the fheriff is commanded, that by the 
oaths of twelve honeft and lawful men he enquire into the 
faid damages, and return fuch inquifition into court."' 
This procefs is called a Writ of Inquiry ; in the execution 
of which the file riff fits as judge, and tries by a jury, fub- 
jedt to nearly the fame law and conditions as the trial by 
jury at nif prius, what damages the plaintiff hath really 
fuftained; and when their verdict is given, which muft 
affefs fome damages, the fheriff returns the inquifition, 
which is entered upon the roll in, manner of a pojlea-, and 
thereupon it is eonfidered, that the plaintiff do recover 
the exadt fum of the damages foaffelfed. In cafes of dif¬ 
ficulty and importance, the court will give leave to have 
the writ of enquiry executed before a judge at fitting or 
nifi priiis ; and then the judge adts only as an affilfant to 
the fheriff. The number of the jurors fworn upon, this 
inqueft need not be confined to twelve ; for,, when a writ 
of enquiry was executed at the bar of the court of K. B„ 
in an adtion of fcand. mag. brought by the duke of York 
(afterwards James II ) againft Titus Oates, who had called 
him a traitor ; fifteen were fworn upon the jury, and gave 
all the damages laid in the declaration ; viz. ioo,oook 
In that cafe, the fheriffs of Middlefex fat in court covered* 
at the table below the judges. 3 St. Tr. 987. 
Final Judgments are fuch as at once put an end to the 
adtion, by declaring, that the plaintiff has either entitled 
himfelf, or has not, to recover the remedy be lues for. 
In which cafe, if the judgment be for the plaintiff, it is 
alfo eonfidered, that the defendant be either amerced, for 
his wilful delay of juftice, in not immediately obeying the 
king’s writ, by rendering the plaintiff his due, 8 Rep. 40* 
63 ; or be taken, capiatur, till he pays a fine to the king 
for the public mifdemeanor, which is coupled with the 
private injury. But, if judgment be for the defendant* 
then, in cafe of fraud and deceit to the court, or malici¬ 
ous or vexatious fuits, the plaintiff may alfo be fined ; 
8 Rep. 5.9, 60. But in moll cafes it is only eonfidered, 
that lie and his pledges of profeenting, be (nominally) 
amerced for his faLle claim, pro faifo clamoreJiio , and that 
the defendant may go thereof without a day, cat indefine 
die ; that is, without any farther continuance or adjourn¬ 
ment ; the king’s writ commanding his attendance being 
now fully fatisfied, and his innocence publicly cleared. 
3. Comm. 395—99. 
All judgments given in any court of record muft be 
duly entered : the plaintiff’s attorney, four days after the 
pojlea is brought into court, if the rule for judgment is out, 
may enter judgment for his client by the courfe of the 
court. 2 Liil. Abra. 95 But on a rule for judgment, Sun¬ 
day is not one of the four days, though the rule is given 
the laft day of the term. After a rule to fign judgment,, 
there ought to be four days exclufive of the day on which 
the rule was made, before the judgment is figned, that the 
party may have a realonable time to bring writ of error. 
In C. B. they never give rules for ligning judgment, but 
flay till the quarto die pojl, which makes but four days in- 
clufive. Mod. Caf. 241. A plaintiff got his judgment fign¬ 
ed on the very day, but it was not executed till after the 
fixth day, fo that the defendant had time enough to bring 
a writ of error, or move any thing in arreft of judgment; 
but the court of K. B. held the ligning of the judgment 
to be irregular, it being before the day allowed by the 
rules of the court; and, though execution was taken out 
afterwards, judgment was let alide. 5 Mad, 205, If a dijp 
tr.ingas 
