Cairo & St. Louis Railroad v. Holbrook

Citations

• 72 Ill. 419

Syllabus

<p>1. Notice — on assessment of damages on default. Where a default for want of a plea is entered against a defendant, and a writ of inquiry to assess damages is ordered, the defendant is not entitled to notice of the execution of the writ, and if there is no time fixed for its execution by order of the court, the defendant, if he would contest the amount of damages, must keep watch and he ready whenever the plaintiff, with the consent of the court, chooses to have them assessed.</p> <p>2. Amendment of record at subsequent term. If the court, by order, sets a particular day for the assessment of damages upon a default, and afterwards, whilst such order is still in force, assesses the damages on a day prior to the one set by such order, the defendant is entitled to have the record made up in accordance with the facts, and if the record is not so made up, he is entitled to have it amended at a subsequent term of the court, if the minutes of the judge made at the time are such as to show, with reasonable certainty, that the court did, in fact, make an order fixing a day for the assessment of damages, and that the damages were assessed before that day arrived.</p> <p>3. The power of a court, over its records after the expiration of the term, unless the cause is still pending, is confined to errors and mistakes of its officers; and these may, at any time, upon notice to the parties in interest, and saving such rights as, in the interval of time, may have accrued to third parties, he corrected so as to make the record conform to the action or judgment of the court.</p> <p>4. It is requisite to the power of a court to amend its record at a subsequent term, first, that there should appear to have been some action of the court in the cause, which might properly and should have become a part of the record of that cause; and, secondly, that its omission from the record was through the fault or mistake of the clerk.</p> <p>5. Same—interpolation in judge's minutes not a part the