Gibbs v. French

The only error in this case, it being an action of debt on a penal bond, is that the damages adjudged exceed the ad damnum,. And this error is an artificial one, growing out of a mistake made in Fournier v. Faggott, 3 Scam. 347, and persistently adhered to ever since, that in actions on penal bonds the ad damnum must be large enough to cover the damages assessed.

The statute of 1845, which is the earliest to which I have access, was probably the same as the earlier one to which reference is made in 3 Scammon, and the only change made by the practice act of 1872 is by placing “shall” in lieu of…