Bell v. Bell
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
ERROR to the common pleas of Indiana county. This writ brought up with the record an inquisition of damages taken at the bar; on the execution of which, bills of exceptions were taken to evidence, and the charge of the court; and these were the grounds of the assignment of errors.
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ERROR to the common pleas of Indiana county. This writ brought up with the record an inquisition of damages taken at the bar; on the execution of which, bills of exceptions were taken to evidence, and the charge of the court; and these were the grounds of the assignment of errors. At the breaking of the case, the court expressed a doubt whether the statute embraced a proceeding of the kind; and suspending the argument in the meantime, desired that search might be made for precedents. The cause being called at a subsequent day, the counsel agreed that no precedent for it could be found.
1Opinion of the Court
The Chief Justice
remarked that the want of a precedent was a convincing proof that the statute had been restrained in practice to the letter which embraces no more than a proceeding in which the party is “ impleadedin other words, the trial of an issue of fact. The execution of a writ of inquiry at bar, wears the garb of such a trial; but it is still no more than a proceeding by an inquest, in which, by legal intendment, the sheriff sits as judge. In Bruce v. Rawlins, 3 Wits. 61, Chief Justice Wilmot declared the writ to *48be an inquest of office to inform the conscience of the judges who…
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