WRIT OF ERROR, practice. A writ issued out of a court of competent
jurisdiction, directed to the judge of a court of record in which final
judgment has been given, and commanding them, in some cases, themselves to
examine the record; in others to send it to another court of appellate
jurisdiction, therein named, to be examined in order that some alleged error
in the proceeding may be corrected. Steph. Pl. 138; 2 Saund. 100, n. 1; Bac.
Ab. Error, in pr.
2. The first is called a writ of error coram nobis or vobis. When an
issue in fact has been decided, there is not in general any appeal except by
motion for a new trial; and although a matter. of fact should exist which
was not brought into the issue, as for example, if the defendant neglected
to Plead a release, which he might have pleaded, this is no error in the
proceedings, though a mistake of the defendant. Steph. Pl. 139. But there
are some facts which affect the validity and regularity of the proceeding
itself, and to remedy these errors the party in interest may sue out the
writ of error coram vobis. The death of one of the parties at the
commencement of the suit; the appearance of an infant in a personal action,
by an attorney, and not by guardian; the coverture of either party, at the
commencement of the suit, when her husband is not joined with her, are
instances of this kind. 1 Saund. 101; 1 Arch. Pr. 212; 2 Tidd's Pr. 1033;
Steph. Pl. 140 1 Browne's Rep. 75.
3. The second species is called, generally, writ of error, and is the
more common. Its object is to review and correct an error of the law
committed in the proceedings, which is not amendable, or cured at common
law, or by some of the statutes of amendment or jeofail. Vide, generally,
Tidd's Pr. ob. 43; Graham's Pr. B. 4, o. 1; Bac. Ab. Error; 1 Vern. 169;
Yelv. 76; 1 Salk. 322; 2 Saund. 46, n. 6, and 101, n. 1; 3 Bl. Com. 405;
Serg. Const. Law, ch. 5.
4. In the French law the demande en cassation is somewhat similar to
our proceeding in error; according to some of the best writers on French
law, it is considered as a new suit, and it is less an action between the
original parties, than a question between the judgment and the law. It is
not the action which is to be judged, but the judgment; "la demande en
cassation est un nouveau proces, bien moins entre les parties qui figuraient
dans le premier, qu'entre l'arret et la loi." Henrion de Pansey, de
l'Autorite judiciare dans les gouvernemens monarchiques, p. 270, edit. in 8
vols.; 6 Toull. n. 193. Ce n'est point le' proces qu'il s'agit de juger,
mais le jugement. Ib.
5. A writ of error is in the nature of a suit or action, when it is to
restore the party who obtains it to the possession of any thing which is
withheld from him, not when its operation is entirely defensive. 3 Story.
Const. Sec. 1721. And it is considered generally as a new action. 6 Port 9.