COURT OF RECORD. A judicial or ganized tribunal having attributes and exer cising functions independently of the person of the magistrate designated generally to hold it, and proceeding according to the course of the common law.
A court where the acts and proceedings are enrolled in parchment for a perpetual memo rial and testimony. 3 Blackstone, Comm. 24.
A court which has jurisdiction to fine and imprison, or one having jurisdiction of civil causes above forty shillings, and proceeding according to the course of the common law. 37 Me. 29.
All courts are either of record or not of record. The possession of the right to fine and imprison for contempt was formerly considered as furnishing decisive evidence that a court was a court of record, Coke, Litt. 117 b, 280 a; 1 Salk. 144; 12 Mod. 388; 2 Wms. Saund. 101 a; Viner, Ahr. Courts; and it is said that the erection of a new tribunal with this power renders it by that very fact a court of record, 1 Salk. 200 ; 12 Mod. 388; 1 Wooddeson, Lect. 98; 3 Blackstone, Comm. 24, 25; but every court of re cord does not possess this power. 1 Sid.145 ; 3Shars wood, Blackst. Comm. 25, n. The mere fact that a permanent record is kept does not, in modern law, stamp the character of the court; since many courts, as probate courts and others of limited or special jurisdiction, are ohliged to keep records and yet are held to he courts not of record. See 11 Mass. 510; 22 Pick. Mass. 430; 1 Cow. N. Y. 212; 3 Wend. N. Y . 268 ; 10 Penn. St. 158 ; 5 Ohio, 545 ; 7 Ala. 3t1; 25 id. 540. The definition first given above is taken from the opinion of Shaw, C. J., in 8 Mete. Moss. 171, with an additional element not required in that case for purposes of distinction, and is believed to contain all the distinctive qualities which can be said to belong to all courts technically of record at modern law.
2. Courts may be at the same time of record for some purposes and not of record for others. 23 Wend. N. Y. 376; 6 Hill, N., Y. 590 ; 8 Mete. Mass. 168 ; 12 id. 11.
Courts of record have an inherent power, independently of statutes, to make rules for the transaction of business; but such rules must not contravene the law of the land. 1 Pet. 604 ; 3 Serg. & R. Penn. 253 ; 8 id. 336; 2 Mo. 98. They can be deprived of their jurisdiction by express terms of denial only.
3 Yeates, Penn. 479 ; 9 Serg. & R. Penn. 298; 2 Burr. 1042 ; 1 W. Blackst. 285. Actions upon the judgments of such courts may, under the statutes of limitations of some of the states of the United States, be brought after the lapse of the period of limitation for actions on simple contracts; and this provision has given rise to several determinations of what are and what are not courts of record, See 22 Pick. Mass. 430; 6 Gray, Mass. 515 ; 6• Hill, N. Y. 590; 1 Cow. N. Y. 212; 25 Ala. N. 8. 540 ; 37 Me. 29.
3. Under the naturalization act of the United States, " every court of record in a state having common-law jurisdiction and a seal and a clerk4or prothonotary" has certain specified powers. As to what the requirements are to constitute a court of record under this act, see 8 Pick. Mass. 168 ; 23 Wend. N. Y. 375.
A writ of error lies to correct erroneous proceedings in a court of record, 3 Black stone, Comm. 407 ; 18 Pick. Mass. 417 ; but' will not lie unless the court be one, techni cally, of record. 11 Mass. 510. See WRIT OF ERROR.