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3 Ala. 281

Allen v. Bradford

Supreme Court of Alabama

Decided January 15, 1842

Supreme Court of Alabama · decided 1842-01-15

Writ of error to the Circuit Court of St. Clair. The defendants in error declared against the plaintiff in as-sumpsit, on a promissory* note, dated the twelfth day of November, 1838, by which the latter, together with John R. Allen, who was not sued, promised to pay to the former, “ as administrators of the estate of Samuel J. Bradford, deceased, nine hundred and sixteen dollars and sixty cents,” twelve months after date.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1842-01-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 12 later decisions — most recently February 1914

12 state decisions

3018421850186018701880189019001910decided

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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COLLIER, C. J.

¶1It is undoubtedly true, that the first judgment is irregular in being rendered in favor of one of the plaintiffs only.

¶2It is no objection to the amended judgment, that no execution had issued within a year and a day, on the original judgment, but if a scire facias was necessary to entitle the plaintiff to an execution, when the amendment was made, the amendment •which was an entry nunc pro tunc, would not in this respect, place the plaintiffs in a better condition.

¶3This Court has repeatedly holden, that a judgment nunc pro tunc may be entered, though no notice is given to the opposite party. Fuqua and Hewitt v. Carriel and Martin, Minor’s Rep. 170; Clemens v. Judson and Banks, ibid. 395. In point of law, no inconvenience can result from the want of notice, as such judgments are alwaj^s founded on matter of record, or some entry or memorandum in the’cause, and cannot be gain-sayed by showing to the Court extraneous facts. A judgment nuricpro tunc is merely consummating what the Court had ordered, or but imperfectly performed, and as it has a retrospective relation, nothing that has occurred post factum can be presented in opposition to it.

¶4The declaration sufficiently shows in whose favor the judgment of the Circuit Court should have been rendered, and in the absence of any other memorandum or entry, furnished a sufficient warrant for the judgment nunc pro tunc. But if any thing farther was necessary, it might perhaps be intended from the recital in the record, that it was satisfactorily shown to the Court, the first entry was irregular through mistake; that the Court was satisfied by legal proof. See Thompson v. Miller, 2 Stew’t. Rep. 470; Draughan and others v. The Tombeckbee Bank, 1 Stew’t Rep. 66; Wilkerson v. Goldthwaite, 1 St. & P. 159; Mays, et al. v. Hassell, 4 S. & P. Rep. 222.

¶5The consequence is, the judgment must be affirmed.

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