Spence v. Beck

Decided January 15, 1857

New York Court of Common Pleas · decided 1857-01-15

Appeal by defendant from a judgment of tbe First District Court, entered by default. On tbe return day of tbe summons, in .this ease, the defendant failed to appear until after tbe cause was called, and it was adjourned to tbe 25tb of June, 1856. On tlr^t day tbe defendant- was late, and did not enter the court room until after tbe canse bad been taken up, and the justice bad just finished taking tbe testimony of the plaintiff's witness.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1857-01-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 6 later decisions — most recently May 1935

6 state decisions

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

Inge uiam, First Judge. —

¶1None of tbe grounds, stated in tbe notice of appeal, appear in tbe return, but arc contradicted by it. We can never suffer a return to be impeached by affidavit. If tbe return is erroneous, it must be corrected by motion *277to the court. On the appeal we are governed by the statements contained therein.

¶2The justice states that he orally communicated to the party the complaint, and offered to permit him to cross-examine the witness, but that the defendant refused and left the court.

¶3If the facts sworn to by the appellant had been returned by the justice as occurring on the trial, the judgment could not be sustained, but we are concluded by the return.

¶4Judgment affirmed.