judgment
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 296 U.S. 268 - Milwaukee County v. M. E. White Co. · 1935Most cited · 701 citing opinions
money
the judgment is an obligation to pay money in the nature of a debt upon the specialty. Recovery upon it can be resisted only on the grounds that the court which rendered it was without jurisdiction... or that it has ceased to be obligatory because of payment or other discharge.
How the Supreme Court has restated “judgment”
Each Supreme Court definition of “judgment,” sized by how often later courts cited it. “Change” is measured by wording overlap with earlier definitions — a rough signal, not a semantic judgment.
How often courts cite the cases defining “judgment”
Court decisions citing the 3 opinions that defined “judgment” — 1,475 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining cases as a whole, not verified uses of the term. The dip in the most recent years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the latest years.
All 3 definitions, chronological · 1935–1945
The judgment of a court is the judicial determination or sentence of the court upon a matter within its jurisdiction. No form of words and no peculiar formal act is necessary to evince its rendition or to mature the right of appeal.
A judgment 'is the act of the court'... even though a clerk does all of the ministerial acts, as here, in conformity with his court's standing instructions.