People ex rel. Maher v. Williams

Citations

• 91 Ill. 87

Syllabus

<p>1. Certificate of evidence&emdash;when may be signed after time fixed. Where an order, granting an appeal in a chancery suit, gives thirty days to the party to prepare a certificate of the evidence and present it to the judge for signatare, but before the expiration of such time, the judge leaves the State, without signing the same, the party will have the right to have the same signed after the return of the judge, and after the expiration of the time originally fixed, when he is not chargeable with laches, and this court will grant a writ of mandamus to compel the judge to sign a proper certificate.</p> <p>2. Chancery practice&emdash;preserving the evidence. When oral evidence is heard in a chancery suit, it is the duty of the court to see that the testimony is in some mode incorporated into the record.</p> <p>3. If the judge, hearing a chancery suit upon oral testimony, can not remember the evidence, he may send for the witnesses who testified before him and examine them again, and in this or some other way ascertain the facts to be incorporated into the certificate of evidence. If a phonographic report is taken by a reporter, that may be resorted to.</p> <p>4. This court will not by mandamus compel a circuit judge to sign a particular certificate of evidence as presented to him. He must determine its accuracy before signing it, and he will not be required to sign one he does not believe to be correct.</p>