Research

Scope and Content Note

The volumes in this series contain common rules for interlocutory or final judgments when a defendant failed to enter a plea to the plaintiff's declaration and therefore was in default.

The rules (or orders) were made on motion of the plaintiff's attorney. Most of them grant the plaintiff an interlocutory judgment and direct a county clerk to assess and report the damages due him. The same rule or a separate one gives final judgment to the plaintiff upon receiving a report of the judgment award from the clerk. Occasionally a common rule directs a sheriff or coroner to return a writ of inquiry with an inquisition into the amount of damages or debt due the plaintiff. In many other instances the rule simply grants the plaintiff a final judgment for the amount claimed in his declaration on default of the defendant. In actions of ejectment the judgment award is possession of the premises in dispute. Each entry in these books gives the title of the cause, the rule granting the plaintiff interlocutory or final judgment, the amount of award, if determined, and the name of the plaintiff's attorney.