Default judgment

“ It then must determine whether that judgment expresses the substance that the court wishes to convey in its summary order, and react accordingly. If the previous reasoned judgment rests on a procedural default, and the subsequent court wishes to forgive that default, it now must clearly and expressly indicate that its judgment does not rest on a state procedural default. I see no benefit in abandoning a clear rule to create chaos. ”

“ In reference to the first inquiry, it would seem to be a legal truism, too palpable to be elucidated by argument, that no person can be bound by a judgment, or any proceeding conducive thereto, to which he never was party or privy; that no person can be in default with respect to that which it never was incumbent upon him to fulfil. The court entering such judgment by default could have no jurisdiction over the person as to render such personal judgment, unless, by summons or other process, the person was legally before it. ”

“ After an entry of default, a defendant cannot defend a claim on the merits. See Jackson, 302 F.3d at 524 ("A default judgment is unassailable on the merits.") ; Adriana Int'l Corp., 913 F.2d at 1414 (" [A] default judgment generally precludes a trial of the facts except as to damages.") . Defendants argue that the set-off hearing was, in reality, a trial on the merits. But, as the district court repeatedly emphasized, the purpose of the set-off hearing was to force Defendants to produce a full accounting and, failing that, to award Plaintiff damages based on the willful discovery violation ”

“ Production before the trial is not, perhaps, contemplated by the words of the provision, nor is it in general necessary, as the penalty, in case of failure to comply with the order, is not arrest and imprisonment until the party comply, as for a contempt, but a judgment of nonsuit or default, as the plaintiff or defendant is the offending party. ”

“ And the assignments of error but challenge, for reasons which it is unnecessary to recapitulate, the lawfulness of the action of the clerk in originally refusing to comply with the request to file the attachment proceedings and enter the default judgment and assess the damages before the first day of the term following the issue of the writ, and therefore but assail all the various opinions and judgments to which we have referred in stating the history of the case.
Under these circumstances we think it is manifest that no ground is shown for the allowance of the prayer of the petition. ”

“ The only matter for our consideration is whether the supreme court of the territory erred in affirming the judgment of the trial court denying the defendant's motion o vacate the judgment entered in default of an appearance. ”

“ The objection that replications were not filed when the trial commenced, nor before judgment, with leave of the court, came too late after judgment was entered. In Kelsey v. Lamb, 21 Ill. 559, the supreme court of Illinois said: 'If the defendant has filed his plea, and the other party fails to reply within the time required by the rules of the court, he has a right to judgment by default against the plaintiff, but until he obtains such default the pleas cannot be considered as confessed by the plaintiff. It is the default which gives the right to consider and act upon the pleas as true. ”

“ We conclude from the unity of structure and purpose in the jurisprudence of state procedural defaults and abuse of the writ that the standard for excusing a failure to raise a claim at the appropriate time should be the same in both contexts. We have held that a procedural default will be excused upon a showing of cause and prejudice. ”

“ The strict procedural default rule is designed in part to protect the State's interest-unique in the context of procedural default-in correcting error in the first instance. Sykes, supra, 433 U.S., at 88-90, 97 S.Ct., at 2507-2508. ”

“ It is not good or bad, as there may or may not be ground for belief that it carried actual notice to the claimant. Justice could not be administered on such a principle. The only redress (when there is any) in cases of hardship, is an appeal to the discretion of the court, to open the default-not by writ of error. ”

“ Another objection has been made that the court can make no decree upon these persons which will be just, for it is said every man's non-attendance or omission of his duty is his own default, and that each particular person must bear just such a proportion as is suitable to the loss arising from his particular neglect, which makes it a case out of the power of the court. ”

“ The true mode of proceeding where a bill makes a joint charge against several defendants, and one of them makes default, is simply to enter a default and a formal decree pro confesso against him, and proceed with the cause upon the answers of the other defendants. The defaulting defendant has merely lost his standing in court. ”

“ As pointed out by the court below, the law of the United States, as well as the laws of many of the states, afford examples of striking out pleadings and adjudging by default for a failure to produce material evidence, the production of which has been lawfully called for. ”

“ And this brings us to another palpable fallacy—another glaring and serious error into which we cannot help thinking the House of Lords has fallen, and which is abundantly evidenced by their judgment: viz. that a court of error has any concern whatever with, or can draw any inference whatever from, the amount of punishment. The reasoning of the judges is here perfectly conclusive. "If a sentence be of the kind which the law allows, the degree of it is not within the competence of a court of error. ”

“ All reasonable presumptions are indulged in support of judgments when collaterally attacked. So large are these presumptions that they generally answer as an explanation for the absence of all matters in the record, which are required to be taken before the judgment can be lawfully entered. ”

“ The amount in controversy is too small to come to this court by writ of error, and we are asked, by the writ of mandamus, to direct the judge of that court to set aside the judgement which he rendered. Whether there was error in that matter or not, we do not think that we have any power, by writ of mandamus, to compel the judge of that court to reverse his own judgment. ”

“ A disregard of the command of the statute is wrongful act, and where it results in damage to one of the class for whose especial benefit the statute was enacted, the right to recover the damages from the party in default is implied, according to a doctrine of the common law. ”

“ That the refusal to quash is not, in the sense of the common law, a judgment; much less is it a final judgment. It is a mere interlocutory order. Even at common law, error only lies from a final judgment; and by the express provisions of the judiciary act, a writ of error lies to this Court only in cases of final judgments. ”

“ The doubts and difficulties derive from the very nature of the problem before us. They arise frequently when this Court is obliged to give definiteness to 'the vague contours' of Due Process or, to change the figure, to spin judgment upon State action out of that gossamer concept. ”

“ Can a judgment inflicting fine or imprisonment be reversed by a court of error, because that judgment proceeded on an indictment containing both bad and good counts, and in respect of which some of the findings of the jury were either defective or defectively entered?—Let us now listen to the decision of that venerable body of men, who are, in the language of our great commentator, "the depositaries of the laws, the living oracles, who must decide in all cases of doubt, and who are bound by an oath to decide according to the law of the land." ”

“ But the courts of many states, including some of great authority, have denied, upon broader grounds, the right of the state to bring a writ of error in any criminal case whatever, even when the discharge of the defendant was upon the decision of an issue of law by the court, as on demurrer to the indictment, motion to quash, special verdict, or motion in arrest of judgment. ”

“ Were it not for the words 'prosecute to conclusion,' we doubt if any court would hold that the act applied to an appeal or writ of error in a civil cause. The applicant, by the statute, must declare the nature of his cause of action. Surely an erroneous ruling by the trial court cannot be held to furnish a 'cause of action,' as that phrase is commonly understood. The statute, by that term, in our judgment, refers to a legal demand by one against another, not to the rulings of a trial court. ”

“ Beyond all doubt it is the duty of the court to render the judgment required by law in the first instance, but the experience of ages makes it evident that mistakes in that behalf will sometimes occur, even in the courts of general jurisdiction, and hence the rule, which may be traced to the very origin of the common law, that a court may vacate and set aside an erroneous judgment, during the same term, and render in its stead the judgment required by law. ”

“ There is nothing before us that makes it possible to say that the judge's discretion was wrongly exercised. Upon the whole case we are driven to the conclusion that the record shows no ground upon which the judgment can be reversed. ”

“ If there be any one principle of law settled beyond all question, it is this, that whensoever a cause of action, in the language of the law, transit in rem judicatam, and the judgment thereupon remains in full force unreversed, the original cause of action is merged and gone for ever. ”

“ Justice GRIER, when the congress of the United States had allowed an appeal where the judgment would have otherwise been final, used this language: 'If the judgment below was erroneous, the plaintiff in error had a moral right at least to have it set aside, and the defendant is only claiming a vested right in a wrong judgment.' And he thus quotes the language of Chief Justice PARKER, in Foster v. Bank, 16 Mass. 245: 'The truth is there is no such thing as a vested right to do wrong ”

“ If the suitors, and all the parties concerned or employed in a cause, knew, that for every fallacy they advanced, they were to pay a large fine, they would be careful not to suggest or advance any thing, that was not simply and exactly true. By this means, the parties would soon be agreed as to the fact, and a determination would quickly be made in favour of the person who had the right of his side, and there would be nothing left to do, but for process to issue agreeable to the ordinary forms of law, in order to enforce and compleat the judgment. ”

“ In this we consider that instruction as having deprived the plaintiff of an undoubted legal right. We regard it, therefore, as erroneous; and for this cause, and for the reasons assigned for disapproving the rulings of the circuit court upon the other instructions given in this case, the judgment of that court is hereby reversed and the cause is remanded to be again tried by a jury in conformity with the principles of this decision. ”

“ The decision of both questions, as the court determined them, was essential to the judgment rendered, and the decision of the second was a distinct denial of the Federal right claimed by the plaintiff in error. ”

“ The difference can only exist when the courts have actually reached contradictory results, but each must proceed to its own judgment, unless such grave doubts arise as to induce the conviction that this court should be resorted to for their solution in the manner provided for. ”

“ These questions must be decided by authority, if any such exist; if none can be found, then, they must be decided by analogy and principle. It may be proper, in this view, again to notice the fact, that this suit is on a joint and several bond; that the defendants severed in their pleas from the principal; that the trial of the issues, (which undoubtedly ought to have been, by the regular course of practice, deferred until the cause was at issue, as to all the parties, or the steps of the law taken to bring them into default;) ”

“ 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. ”

“ We resolve any doubt 'in favor of the liberty of the citizen, rather than exercise what would be an unlimited, uncertain, and arbitrary judicial discretion.' [2] This means that the judgment below must be and is reversed. ”

“ It has always been held by this court that it has no power, after the term has passed, and a cause has been dismissed or otherwise finally disposed of here, to alter its judgment in such a particular as that now asked for, the change of a dismissal of a writ of error, with its legal consequences, to an affirmance of the judgment below, with its legal consequences, and not an error of mere form, or a clerical error, or a misprision of the clerk, or the like. ”

“ A motion to amend, or file an answer after default, is gen erally addressed to the discretion of the court. Under some circumstances, the court, for the purposes of justice, will go great lengths in opening a default and allowing a plea to be filed. ”

“ The disqualification of alienage is cause of challenge propter defectum, on account of personal objection, and, if voluntarily, or through negligence, or want of knowledge, such objection fails to be insisted on, the conclusion that the judgment is thereby invalidated is wholly inadmissible. ”

“ Such a judgment, it is provided by the statute, may be re examined by this court. Can it be rationally contended that such a judgment as the statute describes can be affirmed of a proceeding which on its face declares that no conclusion upon any fact or circumstance, nor on any question of law connected with it, has been formed? That all that has occurred is a mere formality, and nothing more, and has been adopted expressly to avoid a judgment. ”

“ Indeed, upon general principles of jurisprudence, has it not always been the law that men, forced to reach conclusions, must be kept free from even the possibility of civil, much less criminal liability, for error in the conclusions that they may reach? ”