Barnes v. Lapham

Decided February 15, 1856

Supreme Court of Vermont · decided 1856-02-15

Assumpsit. The defendants plead the general issue, with notice that they should give in evidence the following special matter, viz : that after the commencement of the suit, and before its entry in the county court, a judgment was rendered by a justice of the peace, in favor of the plaintiff, with his consent, by the confession of the defendants, for the amount of the plaintiff’s claim, and the costs then accrued.

Cited by 1 later decisions — most recently January 1864

1 state decisions

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1856-02-15

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¶1The opinion of the court was delivered by

Bennett, J.

¶2We do not see how the plaintiff can get along with his case. The confession of judgment operated as a merger of his original cause of action, which was made the ground of this suit; and the agreement of the parties at the time, that this suit should go on for the purpose of charging the trustees, and perfecting a judgment against them, cannot arrest the merger and neither can the defendants be estopped from using the merger as a defense to the original cause of action.

¶3The statute passed last fall cannot reach this case. This judgment-was rendered at the March Term of the county court, 1855; and the exceptions pending, at the time of the passage of the act, were but in the nature'of a writ of error, to reverse that judgment.

¶4Judgment affirmed with costs.