Rehearing
Dictionary of Terms and Phrases Used in American or English Jurisprudence · Benjamin Vaughan Abbott · 1879
Dictionary of Terms and Phrases Used in American or English Jurisprudence
A second hearing; repetition of the judicial consideration of a cause. Hearing is applied to the consideration by an equity judge of the merits of the cause; to the consideration by an appellate court of an appeal or writ of error; and to the consideration by a judge or magistrate on a motion, petition, or special proceeding. A rehearing is had to correct errors that may have occurred before, or do justice better. When a party seeks to have a decree of the court of chancery reversed or altered, he may petition for a rehearing; that is, for the cause to be heard again. Such rehearing is usually had before the same judge that previously heard the case. It is obtained upon a petition to the lord chancellor, accompanied with the certificate of two counsel, one of whom, at least, must have been engaged on the occasion of the former hearing; and the usual ground of it is that there has been an oversight on the part of the judge, resulting in a miscarriage of justice. The certificate is, however, in the most general form, merely stating that the cause is a proper one to be reheard. In case the rehearing is that of an order made on motion, then no certificate of counsel is required, and neither is any petition of appeal necessary, but counsel merely moves the court of appeal on motion with notice. Brown. A rehearing is a hearing again of a matter which has been decided by a judge in chancery; either by the same judge or his successor, or by the lord chancellor or the lords justices. In the latter case, the hearing is spoken of as a hearing on appeal; but in strictness it is a rehearing, being a hearing in the same court of chancery. (3 Bl. Com. 453; 3 Steph. Com. 603; Goldsmith Eq. Pt. III. ch. 17; Hunt Eq. Pt. II. ch. 9.) By the judicature act, 1875, sched.
1, ord.
56, rule 2, all appeals to the court of appeal shall be by way of rehearing, and shall be brought by notice of motion in a summary way; and no petition, case, or other formal proceeding other than such notice of motion shall be necessary. Mozley & W.