Hake v. Strubel

Citations

• 121 Ill. 321
• 12 N.E. 676

Syllabus

<p>1. Bill oe exception's—o/ its office. The office or purpose of a bill of exceptions is to preserve in and make a part of the record such matters as transpired in the progress of a trial, that otherwise would not become a part thereof.</p> <p>2. Same—settling bill of exceptions, and signing and sealing the same, ■as judicial and ministerial acts. The settling and allowance, signing and sealing, a hill of exceptions, considered as a single act, is in its nature both judicial and ministerial. Determining its correctness is judicial, while the mere act of signing and sealing the same is purely ministerial.</p> <p>3. Same—extending the time in vacation for the filing of a bill of exceptions, or an appeal bond—and herein, when the ministerial act of signing may be done. Where the judge trying the case enters an order, giving sixty days in which to prepare and have signed and filed a bill of exceptions, he will have no power, after the close of the term, even within the sixty days limited, to extend the time, and if he approves and signs the bill of exceptions after the sixty days, the act of so' approving and signing will be treated as a nullity.</p> <p>4. The making of an order allowing an appeal, and fixing the amount of the appeal bond, and the time in which the bond and bill of exceptions shall be presented and filed, is a judicial act, which can only be performed by the judge in term time, and when sitting as a court. So an order extending the time for filing such papers is an exercise of judicial pow'er, and can be performed only in term time. ,</p> <p>5. It is not to be understood, however, that the mere ministerial act of signing and sealing a bill that has been presented to and settled and allowed by the judge in apt time, may not lawfully be performed out of term, or after the expiration of the time fixed in the order, and the same be.filed as of the time of its settlement and allowance, or that the rights of the exceptor, presenting his true bill in apt time