Davidson v. Myers

Cochran, J., delivered the opinion of this Court. The appellant rests his claim to relief on a judgment by default, obtained in January, 1862, and upon which, as appears from .the record, a final judgment by confession was entered in the month of October following. The Act of 1861, ch. 70, declares that judgments shall be liens, “for their amount and from their date,” on leasehold interests, in the same manner as upon real estate-; and the appellant’s proposition is, that the judgment by default, relied on here, operated as a lien on the leasehold property of the debtor from the time of its rendition. The character of such a judgment is well defined in our practice. “Judgments by default, on demurrer, and non obstante veredicto, are interlocutory; and final judgment cannot be given until the damages to be recovered are assessed.” Bingham on Judgments, 3.

Evans’ Prac., 335. Generally, a defendant on whose default a judgment by default is entered, confesses the cause of action, and the judgment so entered is conclusive in respect to the jurisdiction of the Court and the right of recovery ; but it goes no farther, for the amount remains to be ascertained, and the recovery thereof to be finally adjudged to the plaintiff. Kierstead vs. Rogers, 6 H. & J., 282 . Green vs. Hamilton, 16 Md. Rep., 317 .

Heffner vs. Lynch, 21 Md. Rep. The' mode of ascertaining the amount for which the final judgment can go, in all cases of interlocutory judgments whereby the right of the plaintiff is established, and the damages cannot be ascertained without the intervention of a jury, is prescribed in the Code, Art. 75, sec. 62. In this class of cases, the final judgment is entered upon the inquisition of the jury; but where the parties fix the amount by agreement, and in that manner waive the inquisition, ⁵⁵⁵ or the cause of action is such that the Court may ascertain the amount without an inquisition, then the final judgment may he entered. The judgment in question here, was clearly interlocutory ; and the record of the case in which it was obtained shows that another and final judgment was entered on the 30th of