JUDGMENT. An intermediate or final de termination or adjudication of the lights of the parties to an action or proceeding by a court of justice. Judgments are usually termed contracts of record, although the designation is inaccurate. (See QUASI-CONTRACT.) Where it determines some of the rights of the parties, but is inter mediate or incomplete because all the questions raised by the issues are not settled or the extent of the relief fixed or defined, it is called inter locutory, as there is something reserved for future determination. For example, if A sues B and the court determines as a matter of law that A is entitled to recover, but the accounts are so complicated that the court directs a reference and an accounting to determine the exact amount due, an interlocutory judgment directing recovery and accounting will be entered, and after the amount due has been reported by the referee, a final judgment for such sum will be entered. Several codes of procedure have abolished the use of the term 'interlocutory judg ment,' and designate as an order every direc tion or determination of the court which is not a final disposition of the action. Under the com
mon-law practice, however. there is a distinction in that an order does not settle any principal question in controversy, but merely some point of practice or some question collateral to the main issue.
A judgment is final when it disposes of or concludes an action so that it is at an end. even though it does not settle all of the rights of the parties. It is usually rendered at the end of the trial of an action, but may he entered upon a default in pleading or as a result of the non-appearance of or abandonment of the action by eitber party, or on a confession of judgment.
In its more technical sense. the term judgment applies only to the adjudication of a court of law, the term decree being employed to describe the determination of a court of equity. (See