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24 Ill. 93

Durham v. Brown

Illinois Supreme Court

Decided April 15, 1860

Illinois Supreme Court · decided 1860-04-15

Tuts was a judgment confessed in vacation by virtue of a power of attorney. The declaration, filed June 14th, 1859, was entitled in vacation, after the February term of the DeKalb county Circuit Court, A. D. 1859. Declaration in usual form upon an assigned note.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1860-04-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 8 later decisions — most recently May 1943

8 state decisions

20186018701880189019001910192019301940decided

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.

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Breese, J.

¶1There was no affidavit filed with the clerk, proving the execution of the power of attorney to confess the judgment. The statute provides that judgment by confession may be entered in certain courts, of which the Circuit Court of DeKalb is one, at any time in vacation, before the clerk, by filing the proper papers with the clerk, and such judgment shall have the same force and effect, from the time of entry, as if entered in term time. When the proper papers are filed, they become a part of the record, and no bill of exceptions is necessary to bring them before this court — they are on the record. This is the meaning of the statute. When the confession is by an attorney, one of the proper and indispensable papers would be the poAver of attorney. ■ There was none in this case, and the statement that it was proved, is riot sufficient.

¶2We do not regard such confessions taken by the clerk in vacation as a judicial act. They are merely conclusions of law on contracts acknowledged of record, and so far as public convenience is concerned, avoiding expense and protracted litigation, should be encouraged.

¶3For the want of the power of attorney, there being none filed, the judgment is reversed.

¶4Judgment reversed.

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