Grogan v. Deraney

1. At common law, a motion in arrest of judgment was in the nature of a belated general demurrer based upon unamendable defects appearing upon the face of the pleadings, and could be made at the term during which the verdict was rendered, for the purpose of staying the further progress of the proceeding by preventing a judgment, void for such reasons, from being actually entered. At common law, the purpose of a motion.to set aside a judgment was to permit a litigant, within a reasonable time after a judgment had been actually entered, to appeal to the sound legal discretion of the judge to…