WARRANT OF ATTORNEY. In Practice. An instrument in writing, ad dressed to one or more attorneys therein named, authorizing them, generally, to appear in any court, or in some specified court, on behalf of the person giving it, and to confess judgment in favor of some particular person therein named, in an action of debt, and usu ally containing a stipulation not to bring any writ of error, or file a bill in equity, so as to delay him.
2. This general authority is usually quali fied by reciting a bond which commonly accompanies it, together with the condition annexed to it, or by a written defeasance stating the terms upon which it was given and restraining the creditor from making immediate use of it.
In form, it is, generally, by deed; but it seems it need not necessarily be so. 5 Taunt. 264.
This instrument is given to the creditor as a security. Possessing it, be may sign judg ment and issue an execution, without its being necessary to wait tbe termination of an action. See 14 East, 576 ; 2 Term, 100;
1 H. Blackst. 75 ; 1 Strange, 20 ; 2 W. Blackst. 1133 ; 2 Wile. 3 ; 1 Chitty, Bail. 707.
3. A warrant of attorney given to confess a judgment is not revocable, and, notwith standing a revocation, judgment may be entered upon it. 2 Ld. Rayrn. 766, 850 ; 1 Salk. 87 ; 7 Mod. 93 ; 2 Esp. 563. The death of the debtor is,,however, generally speak ing, a revocation. Coke, Litt. 52 b ; 1 Vent Ch. 310.
The virtue of a warrant of attorney is spent by the entry of one judgment, and a second judgment entered on the same war rant is irregular. 1 Penn. 245 ; 6 Serg. & R. Penn. 296 ; 14 id. 170 ; Add. Penn. 267; 2 Browne, Penn. 321 ; 3 Wash. C. C. 558. See, generally, 1 Salk. 402 ; 1 Sellon, Pract. 374 ; Comyns, Dig. Abatement (E 1, 2), At torney (B 7, 8) ; 2 Archbold, Pract. 12 ; Bing ham, Judgm. 38.