Research

Scope and Content Note

This series consists of assignments of errors made by plaintiffs in error in the Supreme Court. The assignment of errors corresponds to the declaration in an ordinary action. In it the plaintiff in error states the "manifest error" found in the record, proceedings, and judgment in a case heard and decided by a lower court and asks that the higher court reverse and annul the judgment. The document was prepared and signed by the attorney for the plaintiff in error. He did this only if ordered to assign errors on motion of the defendant in error. The series includes a few joinders in error, in which the defendant in error replies to the assignment of errors and joins with the plaintiff in error in referring the alleged errors to the court so that the judgment may be affirmed or reversed. The Revised Statutes of 1829 contain no provisions concerning assignment of errors.