Certioraei

Lat. [Certior fieri, to be made more certain; to be certified, or more distinctly informed.] In practice. A writ, used generally for the purpose of removing causes, before trial or judgment, from inferior to superior courts. It. is issued out of the superior court, (or, m England out of the court of chancery,^ and » directed to the judges or officers ol the in« ferior court, reciting the will of the king or people to be certified of the proceeding, (quia certis de eausis cbrtiorari volumus, dtc) and commanding the record to be sent or returned before them. See the M forms, Beg. Orig. 284. F. N, B. 242 b, et seq. It may be had either m criminal or civil cases. 3 Steph, Com. 708. 4 Bl, Com. 265, 272, 820. 1 Tidd's Pr, 397. Bac. Abr, Certiorari, A. Com. Dig. Certiorari, A. It lies ateo as an auxiliary process on writs of error, where the whole of the record is not certified by the court below, to obtain a complete return. 2 Ttdd's Pr. 1167. U. S. big. Certiorari, L And it lies (in place of a writ of error) after judgments to review the judgments of inferior courts and judges, when they act in a summary way, or in a new course different from the common law. 1 Tidd's Pr, 400. 2 Id, 1184. In American practice, a certiorari is used as a mode of appeal from the judgments of courts not of record. 2 Burr. Pr, 198. U. S, Dig, Certiorari, I. It is also the proper process for correcting any error that may have occurred in the proceedings of an inferior court when such proceedings are, in any stage of them, different from the course of the common law, unless some different process is given by statute. U.8, Dig. Certiorari, I, 2, 3, et seq, and the cases there cited. Its application also is not con« fined to the decisions of courts, properly so called, nor to proceedings in actions, but comprehends the determinations of special tribunals, commissioners, magistrates and officers exercising judicial powers affecting the property or rights of the citizen, and who act m a summary way, or in a new course different from the common law, and also the proceedings of municipal corporations in certain cases. Paige, Senator, 25 Wendel Vs B. 167. 2 ffUFs B, 9, 14.