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In the Matter of the Life and Fire Insurance Company of New York, Plaintiffs v. the Heirs of Nicholas Wilson 291 (1834)

handle is hein.slavery/ussccases0120 and id is 1 raw text is: JANUARY TERM 1834. IN THE MATTER OF THE LIFE AND FIRE INSURANCE COMPANY OF NEW YORK, PLAINTIFFS V. TnE HEIRS OF NICHOLAS WILSON. Mandamus. The district judge of Louisiana refused to sign the record of a judgment rendered in a case, by his predecessor in office. By the law of Louisiana, and the rule adopted by the district court, the judgment, with- out the signature of the judge, cannot be enforced. It is not a final judg- ment, on which a writ of error may issue, for its reversal. Without the action of tho judge the plaintiffs can take no step in the case. They can neither issue execution on the judgment, nor reverse the proceedings by writ of error. On a motion for a mandamus, the court hold: The district judge is mistaken in supposing that no one but the judge who renders the judgment, can grant a new trial. He, as the successor of his predecessor, can exercise the same powers, and has a right to act on every case that remains undecided upon the docket, as fully as his predecessor could have done. The court remains the same, and the change of the incumbents cannot and ought not, in any respect, to injure the rights of litigant parties. The judgment may be er- roneous, but this is no reason why the judge should not sign it. Until his signature be affixed to the judgment, no proceedings can be had for its re- versal. He has, therefore, no right to withhold his signature, where, in the exercise of his discretion, he does not let aside the judgment. The court, therefore, directed, that a writ of mandamus be igsued, directing the district judge to sign the judgment. On a mandamus a superior court will never direct in what manner the discre- tion of an inferior tribunal shall be exercised, but they will, in a proper case, require an inferior court to decide. But, so far as it regards the case under consideration, the signature of the judge was not a matter of discretion. It followed as a necessary consequence of the judgment, unless the judg- ment had been set aside by a new trial. The act of signing the judgment is a ministerial and not a judicial act. On the allowance of a writ of, error, a judge is required to sign a citation to the defendant in error; he is required, in other cases, to do acts which are not strictly judicial. The writ of mandamus is subject to the legal and equitable discretion of the court, and it ought not to be issued in cases of doubtful right. But it is the only adequate mode of relief, where an inferior tribunal refuses to act upon a subject brought properly before it. A motion for a new trial is always addressed to the discretion of the court, and this Lourt will not control the exercise of that discretion by a circuit court, either by a writ of mandamus or on a certificate of livibion between the judges. ON a noti'on for a mandaintis to the district cotit of the Uni- ted State. for thc eastern district of Lotilsiata.

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