Morrison v. Dapman

Decided October 15, 1853

California Supreme Court · decided 1853-10-15

This was an ejectment for the 50 vara lot, Eo. 453, in San Francisco, and for $5000 damages for mesne profits. The deceased claimed to be seised of said lot, Eovember 13th, 1843, and died so seised in January, 1844; the plaintiff is his administrator, and there is no other property of said deceased except his claim to this lot.

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“If there is no record evidence to show that the judgment was different from the one entered, the latter must stand as the judgment until reversed.”

quoted by 1 later decision, including In Re Jennings' Estate

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1853-10-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 15 later decisions — most recently January 1937

15 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 →

¶1 *257In July, 1852, the Superior Court entered judgment, that the defendants recover their costs, to be levied de bonis intestatis.

¶2In January, 1853, this judgment is opened and amended, so that the costs be levied de bonis propriis.

¶3A court may at any time render or amend a judgment nune pro tunc. But this power is confined to cases where the record discloses, that the entry on the minutes does not correctly give what was the judgment of the court.

¶4If there is no record evidence, to show that the judgment was different from the one entered, the latter must stand as the judgment until reversed.

¶5And although a court may thus at any time make the entry conform to what was the judgment rendered, it will not be permitted, after the lapse of a term, to open upon motion, and render a new judgment. Such a practice is too loose, and would give rise to too much uncertainty.

¶6Judgment reversed.