Assignment of error

“ Such being the state of the pleadings, it is impossible to say that any error of law was committed by the tribunal.
Viewed in any light, it is clear that there is no error in the record, and the assignment of errors must be overruled. ”

“ Rep. 764. Inasmuch as those cases are decisive upon the point under consideration, a mere reference to them is all that is essential in this connection. We still adhere to the doctrines therein enunciated, and this assignment of error is, therefore, without force. ”

“ In this court, plaintiff in error, by one counsel, files forty-five assignments of error, and by another seven more; making fifty-two in all.
The object of the rule requiring an assignment of errors is to enable the court and opposing counsel to see on what points the plaintiff's counsel intend to ask a reversal of the judgment, and to limit the discussion to those points. ”

“ And that such was the transaction the evidence received by the court tended to prove. The first assignment of error, therefore, cannot be sustained. Nor can the sixth, which is to the charge of the court, and which presents substantially the same question as that raised by the first. ”

“ We might dismiss this assignment of error on the ground that there was a general finding for defendants on all the issues of fact, and that no error can be assigned on such a finding. Tioga R. R. v. Blossburg & C. R. R. 20 Wall. ”

“ Even now, though the complaining party has filed an assignment of errors and submitted a written argument, it is by no means certain what the precise complaint is, unless it be that the verdict, in their view, is for the wrong party. ”

“ This statement of facts is quite sufficient to indicate the grounds upon which we rest our determination of such of the questions raised by the assignment of errors as we deem it necessary to consider. ”

“ The assignments of error bring to our attention numerous exceptions taken by the company to the admission of evidence, and to the refusal to give instructions asked in its behalf. We deem it unnecessary to consider them in detail. ”

“ Under this assumed state of facts we content ourselves with saying that there is no room for holding that the assertion of error based upon the refusal to continue was so devoid of foundation as to be merely frivolous in character. ”

“ He might have saved the point by an exception at the trial or by a bill of exceptions to the denial of his subsequent motion, setting forth whatever facts or offers of proof were material, and then have brought a writ of error. ”

“ If an error should occur in the choice thus made for us by others, the fault is not ours: we could not decide whether or not an error had been committed, and could not venture to presuppose one; if it has occurred, then it is our business, so far as in us lies, to correct it. ”

“ It is a well settled maxim of the law, that 'no person can bring a writ of error to reverse a judgment who is not a party or privy to the record.' 'A writ of error lies when a man is grieved by an error in the foundation, proceeding, judgment, or execution' in a suit. ”

“ If, then, this were the only ground on which we were asked to proceed in disposing of these assignments of errors, we should not feel disposed to disturb the judgment; but, when we come to examine the objections that were sufficiently taken to the evidence in question, we find error so serious as to compel a reversal. ”

“ It is that tendency of error once countenanced or tolerated to grow into precedent, which has ever enjoined it upon me as a sacred duty to resist its approaches before they have been matured into power ”

“ Other questions are presented by the assignments of error, but it is not necessary to discuss them. None of them furnish a ground for reversal. We perceive no error in the record, and the judgment of the circuit court of appeals is affirmed. ”

“ There is the more reason for declining further consideration in the extravagant and unnecessary multiplication of exceptions and assignments of error that often has been condemned by this court. Central Vermont R. Co. ”

“ These several assignments of error were discussed at the bar in the order herein stated; but it will be more convenient to consider the question of limitation first, for the reason that, if that is sustained, the other assignments of error will become immaterial, as sufficiently appears from the prayers of the bill of complaint, of which the following are the most material: 1. ”

“ A writ of error must be brought in the names of all the parties against whom the judgment to be reviewed is given. This is a substantial defect in the appeal, and can be taken advantage of at any time before judgment. ”

“ An error in a clock time, the miscarriage of a message, the neglect to issue an instruction, a misreading of an order, an omission from a list of names, a mistake in a computation, an incomplete inventory, are bound in the long run to involve an added burden somewhere upon some private soldier. ”

“ If we have any good in our doctrine, believe it and embrace it, it will do you good. If we have errors, do not embrace them. I have been trying, for almost forty years, to tell the people how to be saved. I have always made this proposition to every man I have conversed with on the subject of truth and error, "If I have errors, I will give ten errors for a truth. ”

“ And again, the argument may be reprehended by an invalidating of the other part of it—"But if he is a modest man, when he has been corrected by your accusation he will abandon his error." An enumeration of particulars is understood to be faulty if we either say that something has been passed over which we are willing to admit, or if some weak point has been included in it which can be contradicted, or if there is no reason why we may not honestly admit it. ”

“ Such errors have so great and rapidly extending power for harm, and, when built upon, so certainly bring the superstructure tumbling to the ground, that the competent and careful workman can render no better service than to point out and correct them wherever found, undeterred by the association of great names, or the consciousness of his own liability to blunder. A sound and conscientious writer will welcome the courteous correction of his error, in the interest of historical accuracy; the opinion of any other need not be regarded. ”

“ We do not say that we necessarily should have come to this conclusion if the case had been tried before us in the first instance, but, upon a pure question of fact, the error, if there was one, is not so plain as to call upon us to depart from our usual rule. ”

“ To maintain the assignments of error, we should be obliged to go into the record, and ascertain what was the proof on the subject upon which the court based its findings, and deduce from this analysis that the premise upon on which the assignments just mentioned are based was a correct one. ”

“ Whenever it is practicable and worth the labour, we ought to investigate these special conditions of error; nevertheless, when there are a great number of different sources of minute error, the general resultant will always tend to obey that general law which we are about to consider. ”

“ Examining the whole record and considering all the propositions and arguments deemed as sustaining them, pressed at bar, we are of opinion that all the contentions urged to show that reversible error exists in ultimate analysis rest upon assertions as to the existence or nonexistence of tendencies of the proof ”

“ I maybe allowed to add, that many individuals, and amongst them men as keen in the detection of error as unmerciful in its exposure, have assured me, that after taking up the pamphlet for the purpose of tracing out the fallacy on which, in their full belief, its suggestions were founded, after perusing and re-perusing, examining and comparing, after trying the chain as a whole and striking it link by link, they became convinced of its perfect soundness, and satisfied that the only error was in their own previous conceptions. ”

“ When instructions are asked, they should be precise and certain, to a particular intent; that the point intended to be raised may be distinctly seen by the court, and that error, if one be made, may be distinctly assigned. ”

“ It is only one of those cases frequently occurring in the administration of the law in which it is better that errors not pointed out at the proper time should be disregarded, than that, by attempts to correct them, evils much worse should follow than those incident to the error. Commissioners v. ”

“ Import of the argument is, that a writ of error lies only on a final judgment, and that the plaintiff, when he accepts full satisfaction for his judgment, removes the only foundation on which the writ of error can be allowed. ”

“ In the case of courts of common law,-and we are not here concerned with the special grounds upon which courts of equity afford relief,-the court at a subsequent term has power to correct inaccuracies in mere matters of form, or clerical errors, and, in civil cases, to rectify such mistakes of fact as were reviewable on writs of error coram nobis, or coram vobis, for which the proceeding by motion is the modern substitute. ”

“ So far as error is founded upon the bill of exceptions incorporated into the record, it lies only to exceptions taken at the trial to the ruling of the law by the judge, and to the admission or rejection of evidence. ”

“ Even when you discover them in minor faults do not make the mistake of unduly magnifying and emphasizing the error. As soon as possible direct the thoughts and attention of the wrongdoer away from his error, and focus his thoughts and attention on the high goal you expect him to reach. ”

“ There is a motion to dismiss the writ of error on the grounds that the judge, who was the only party to the mandate alleged to be erroneous, did not sue out the writ, but that, on the contrary, he has obeyed the order, and that the plaintiffs in error are not privy to the judgment. ”

“ These irregularities, whatever might have been their original imperfections, if not waived, were in our opinion, waived, by the defendant going to trial upon the merits, and cannot now constitute any objection upon the present writ of error. For a writ of error does not bring up for review any irregularities of this sort. Judgment affirmed, with six per cent. damages. ”

“ We do not test the accuracy of the reasoning upon which the contention must rest, nor comprehensively review the authorities, since in our opinion it cannot be said, either from the point of view of reason, or from a consideration of the decided cases, that there is ground for holding that there was such manifest error committed as to justify reversal. ”

“ A mere error in law, of any kind, supposed to have been rendered in a judgment of a court at a previous term, is never a sufficient justification for revising and annulling it, at a subsequent term, in this summary way, on motion. ”

“ Whenever in the course of our reasoning we are involved in error, either the conclusion follows from the premisses or it does not. If it does not, the fault must lie in the process of reasoning, and we have then what is called a Logical Fallacy. If, on the other hand, the conclusion does follow from the premisses, the fault must lie in the premisses themselves, and we then have what is called a Material Fallacy. ”

“ The first mode of correcting error, whether in individuals or in the community, is by proclaiming its existence ; the next is, when ripe for action, by acting.
That the presents influenced the judgment of the chancellor was never for a moment supposed by any man. Fourteen out of the twenty-two charges related to presents made long after the causes were terminated, and the complaints of his accusers were, not that the gratuities had, but that they had not influenced his judgment, as he had decided against them. ”

“ But I beg the House to observe this, that an error which produces the most serious consequences may not necessarily prove that the man who has committed it is not a very wise man; and that, on the other hand, an error which directly produces no important consequences may prove the man who has committed it to be quite unfit for public trust. ”

“ Rep. 325; Insurance Co. v. Allen, 121 U.S. 67, 71, 7 Sup. Ct. Rep. 821. Those three assignments of error amount, in substance, to the same thing as the alleged error in finding as a matter of law that the findings of fact stated could lawfully be made from the evidence admitted and considered. ”

“ If larger errors are pointed out, it is immediately contended that they can deceive nobody, because of their magnitude. Perhaps it might be of some use, if the Council would oblige the world with their SCALE of ERROR, with illustrations from some of the most RECENT and APPROVED works, and would favour the uninformed with the orthodox creed upon all grades, from that which baffles the human faculties to detect, up to that which becomes innocuous from its size. ”

“ It is severely true, that while fools think to shun error on one side, they run into the contrary error—i. e., the error that lies equi-distant, or nearly equi-distant, on the other side of the line of right. ”

“ The theory of error which we have been considering rests entirely upon an assumption, namely that when known sources of disturbances are allowed for, there yet remain an indefinite, possibly an infinite number of other minute sources of error, which will as often produce excess as deficiency. ”

“ The assignments of error are eleven in number, and state in various forms of expression the contention that the judgment entered was erroneous because plaintiff was not accorded a proper hearing upon the issue of res judicata. ”