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8 Blackf. 133

Gambia v. Howe

Indiana Supreme Court

Decided July 6, 1846

Indiana Supreme Court · decided 1846-07-06

<p>In case of a judgment confessed by virtue of a warrant of attorney, the cause of action must be described either in a declaration or in the warrant of attorney. The record must also show that the execution of the warrant of attorney was duly proved.</p>

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1846-07-06

How this case has been cited

Cited by 6 later decisions — most recently November 1908

6 state decisions

201846185018601870188018901900decided

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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Pekiuns, J.

¶1This was a judgment confessed by virtue of a power of attorney.

¶2Two errors are assigned; 1. The record does not show with sufficient certainty the ground of liability on which the judgment was rendered; 2. It does not show that the execution of the power of attorney, by virtue of which it was confessed, was proved.

¶3These errors are well assigned. We take it, that in judg*134ments confessed by warrant of attorney, as well as in cases of suits prosecuted in the usual manner, the rec<prd must disclose, with reasonable certainty, the nature of the liability for which the judgment is rendered. When a declaration is filed, it may appear in that. When there is no declaration, it must be set out in the warrant of attorney with the same certainty as is required in a declaration. It was not so set out in this case, and no declaration was filed. The warrant simply authorizes an attorney of the Allen Circuit Court to appear, &c., and confess judgment for a certain sum on three promissory notes then in the hands of a third person. Copies of the notes are not set forth, nor are descriptions of them given.

R. Brackenridge, for the plaintiff.J. B. Howe, for the defendant.

¶4The record should also show that the execution of the warrant of attorney was duly proved. That fact is not shown in this case. A copy of a paper, purporting to be signed by Robert L. Douglass, and called an affidavit, appears upon the record, which paper was received in the Circuit Court as proof of the power of attorney; but it has no jurat nor certificate of having been sworn to attached. It amounts to nothing more than a simple certificate.

¶5The judgment in this case is unauthorized.1

Per Curiam.

¶6The judgment is reversed with cogts. Cause remanded, &c.

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