JUDGMENT is the sentence of the law pronounced by the court upon the matter in the record, and the remedy prescribed by law for the redress or punishment of injuries; the suit or prosecution being the vehicle by which tho injury is brought before the court. Judg ments aro given under four heads of issues : on Demurrer, where the facts are centered by the partite, and the law detertniwel by the roust ; oo Verdict, when the law la admitted and the fact disputed ; by Confession or Default, when the defendant admits both the law and the fact ; and on Noosult or Retraxit, where the plaintiff acknow ledges that neither the law nor the facts are sufficient to support his cam, sad therefore abandons the prosecution.
Judgment/ are either interlocutory or final. Interlocutory judg ments include all those which are given on account of the incomplete awe of the ease as brought before the court, and which do not go to the absolute merit* of the owe such as judgments on pleas of abate ment. But the largest clam to which this term is applied arc judg ment.. which, although they decide the right between the parties, require some other proceeding to determine the amount to be recovered.
This is commonly a writ of inquiry, directed to the sheriff, who t2rrdoro panneols a jury, and proceeds to amass the amount of which the party in whose favour the interlocutory judg raets berm given is untitled. If, however, the suit is for a specific thing or stun, the decision of the court determining whether the plain tar is or la not entitled to recover the remedy he sues for, the judgment Is final.
By the Common Law Procedure Act, 1952, a plaintiff or defendant having obtained a verdict, judgment may be signed thereon in fourteen days unless otherwise ordered by the judge. The opposite party may prevent judgment from being signed by moving the court for a new trial in case of any objection to the for arrest of judg ment, if an thing had appears on the record ; for judgment non °Galante wrest:et., that la, that judgment may be given in his favour, notwith standing the verdict, when the plaintiff conceives that a plea of con fission and avoidance in which a verdict has been given for the defendant is improper ; for repleater, when the pleading failed to raise the material question ; or for a writ of mire fad= de Nero, when some form, as by improperly choosing the jury, has been violated. After the expiration of these fourteen days, the plaintiff or defendant may obtain the signature or allowance of the proper officer of the court, stating that the judgment is in his favour. This is called signing judgment The nature or form of the judgment varies according to the nature of the action, the plea, the lune, and the manner and result of the decision.
let. 1f the issue be for the plaintiff.
If it be an issue at law arising upon a dilatory plea, the judgment ie, that the defendant answer over, and is called a respondent ouster. Upon all other Minus' in law, and generally In fact, the judgment is that the plaintiff do recover, which is called gnu! recrperd.
51d. If the issue be for the defendant.
The issue being on a dilatory plea„ whether of law or fact, the judg went is, that the writ or declaration be quashed or the suit be abated ; If the Wu* be on a pereinjamy plea, the judgment is that the',Untie i take nothing, which called a judgment nil capita. When
are wren by default, or confession without issue, if for the plaintiff, they ars geed rouperti, if for the defendant, nil rapiat.
Besides the question at Wino being decided by the judgment, the coda of the suit are generally directed to be taxed and paid by th( party against whom the judgment is delivered. In addition to this the judgment. when given for the plaintiff, orders that the defendant he In is, amerced or final for his delay of justice ; ant! when for the defendant, that the plaintiff "be in mercy" for his fele Judgment being signed, the party In whose favour it is given ma} mon out execution thereon, directed to the sheriff of the county when the property to be taken is situated. At common law, the goods and chattels of a debtor under a writ of jferi fades, and the growing profit of the land under a tenni faria,, could alone be taken in execution bj a judgment creditor fur debt or damages. The remedy was extended by the 13 Edw. 1. stet. 1, c. IS (West. '2), to the creditor over a motet} of the real property of the debtor, for which purpose a writ called at deOt was created, including all freehold estates and interests which the debtor held In severalty, oopareenery, or in common, and all rem! charges; but aspyholda were held not to be liable to be taken in ere elitism under thin writ. By a fiction of the law, judgments were con eiderol to take effect from the first day of the term in which they wer pignut and therefore a purchaser might have his estate encumbered be a judgment acknowledged subsequently to the purchase. To reined; this injuatior, it was emoted by the Statute of Frauds (29 Car. II. e. that any judge who should sign judgments, should at the time o .:Ruing set down the exact date thereof, which date should be ads written on thy margin of the record when the judgment was entered and each judgment. should operate from the date appearing on th maigin. As, however, this +114 not compel the plaintiffto bring In th judgment roll, It was Masud Impossible for purchasers to discover wha judeasenta existed against the Ian& about to be conveyed. An Act therefore was pseud (4 & 6 Wm. & Mary, c. 20), afterward,' mule) en pseud the 7 k 5 11 en. Ill. c. 30, which directed that the clerk o the Court of C. IL, the clerk of the Docketa of the Court of II. IL, an the muter of the office of pleas in the Court of Exchequer, shout keep an alphabetical list or docket of all judgment, in their respectiv court*, entered according to the names of the defendants ; and that n judgment. should elect lands In the hand. of /reed fide tmebuscn Ames no docketed according to the Act. How this law has been Itered by recent statutes will be hereafter considered. For the Fur ose of discharging a judgment, the proper mode is to enter up satire action on the court rolls; but a deed of release will have the same ffect although the judgment be allowed to remain ; and it has been telt' that a release of all suits is a complete discharge of all unsatisfied udgmenta. If execution be not sued out within a year and a day of igning the judgment, it must be revived by a writ of *etre 'arias; and t judgment was presumed to be satisfied after a lapse of twenty years rem the signing or the last revival, which is now confirmed by the itatuto 3 & 4 Win. IV. c. 27.