try in the docket may be treated as a judgment.21 But it is the better practice to enter a formal judgment 22 and two separate documents filed in different county clerk's offices in the same case cannot be pieced together and treated as a judgment.23 It has been held that, where the plaintiff's pleading in ejectment describes the land as all of a certain tract, except portions thereof embraced in prior grants and patents from the State, the judgment must accurately describe the parts excluded; 24 and that a judgment for the deportation of a Chinese, which recited that he was a laborer, a subject of the Emperor of China, not registered as required by the acts of Congress upon this subject, that he did not belong to one of the classes excepted by said acts from such registration, and was lawfully within the United States; was not objectionable for failure to state sufficient facts to sustain it.25 At common law a judgment does not carry interest as a matter of right,26 whether interest is recoverable depends upon the nature of the judgment when by its terms it so recites,27 or when it belongs to a class of judgments upon which a statute awards interest.28 The Revised Statutes provide: "interest shall be allowed on all judgments in civil causes recovered in a Circuit court." 29 It has been, said that judgment allowed by statute merely is not contractual, but a penalty or liquidated damages.30 A judgment against a collector of internal revenue for taxes illegally collected carries interest.31 21 Holford v. James, 136 Fed. 533; Smith v. Smith, C. C. A., 247 Fed. 461; S. M. Hamilton Coal Co. v. Watts, C. C. A., 232 Fed. 832; but see U. S. v. Sixty-five Cases of Glove Leather, 254 Fed. 211, supra, § 186k. 22 Oklahoma City v. McMaster, 196 U. S. 529, 532, 533, 49 L. ed. 587; Sabine Hardwood Co. v. West Lumber Co. et al. 238 Fed. 611. 23 Oklahoma City v. McMaster, 196 U. S. 529, 532, 533, 49 L. ed. 587. 24 Green v. Davis, C. C. A., 156 Fed. 352. Fed. Prac. Vol. III-20 25 Lee Won Jeong v. U. S., C. C. A., 145 Fed. 512. 26 U. S. v. Jacob Schmidt Brewing Co., 254 Fed. 714. 27 Ibid. 28 Ibid. 29 U. S. R. S., § 1605. 30 Missouri & Arkansas Lumber & Mining Co. v. Greenwood District, 249 U. S. 170, 173. 31 N. Y. Mail & Newspaper Transp. Co. v. Anderson, C. C. A., 2 Ct. 74 Fed. 590. A judgment in favor of the United States for taxes carries interest from the date when they fell due.32 A judgment for a fine imposed for the commission of a crime does not carry interest.38 Originally, by the old common law, the record of an action at common law consisted only of the process, pleadings, verdict and judgment.34 The statutes of a number of States require interlocutory orders to be incorporated in the record. To what extent they should be followed by the Federal courts has not yet been decided.35 The Federal courts should follow the State practice in recording judgments.36 § 480a. Lien and docket of judgments. By the revised statutes: "Judgments and decrees rendered in a Circuit or District Court, within any State, shall cease to be liens on real estate or chattels real, in the same manner and at like periods as judgments and decrees of the courts of such State cease, by law, to be liens thereon." 1 This section does not apply to judgments in favor of the United States. Consequently, the government need not, and cannot sue to enforce such a judgment by the sale of lands to which the judgment debtor has the legal title, although the judgment by the State law would have lost its lien since it can be enforced by a fieri facias or execution. 32 Billings v. U. S., 232 U. S. 261. 33 U. S. v. Jacob Schmidt Brewing Co., 254 Fed. 715. 34 Cassatt v. Mitchell Coal & Coke Co., C. C. A., 10 L.R.A. (N.S.) 99, 150 Fed. 32, 43; Brown v. Warden, 44 N. J. Law, 177. 35 Cassatt v. Mitchell Coal & Coke Co., C. C. A., 10 L.R.A. (N.S.) 99, 150 Fed. 32, 43; reversed for want of jurisdiction. The Federal courts have conformed to the procedure prescribed by Act of Pa. April 22, 1905, P. L. 286, giving a party who has requested binding instructions which have been refused, the right to move to have all the evidence taken on the trial certified and filed, so as to become part of the record, and for judgment non obstante veredicto on the whole record, and thereunder the Federal court may order that the evidence taken by an official stenographer be certified and filed as part of the record. Cornette v. Baltimore & O. R. Co., C. C. A., 195 Fed. 59. But see Slocum v. N. Y. Life Ins. Co., 228 U. S. 364. 36 Morrison v. Bernards Tp., 35 Fed. 400, 25 St. at L. 357. § 480a. 1 U. S. R. S., § 967. See Sellers v. Corwin, 5 Ohio, 398, 24 Am. Dec. 301. 2 U. S. v. Minor, 243 Fed. 953. 3 Ibid. A recent statute provides as follows: "Judgments and decrees rendered in a Circuit or District Court of the United States within any State, shall be liens on property throughout such State in the same manner and to the same extent and ' under the same conditions only as if such judgments and decrees had been rendered by a court of general jurisdiction of such State: Provided, That whenever the laws of any State require a judgment or decree of a State court to be registered, recorded, docketed, indexed, or any other thing to be done, in a particular manner, or in a certain office or county, or parish in the State of Louisiana before a lien shall attach, this act shall be applicable therein whenever and only whenever the laws of such State shall authorize the judgments and decrees of the United States courts to be registered, recorded, docketed, indexed, or otherwise conformed to the rules and requirements relating to the judgments and decrees of the courts of the State." "The clerks of the several courts of the United States shall prepare and keep in their respective offices complete and convenient indices and cross-indices of the judgment records of said courts, and such indices and records shall at all times be open to the inspection and examination of the public."4 "Congress has repealed a clause providing that this does not require the docket of such a judgment or decree, or the filing 425 St. at L. 357, as amended by 37 St. at L. 311. Congress could not make it obligatory on the State clerks to docket and enter a judg ment of a Federal court on their records. But it was entirely com. petent for the State to require her clerks to perform this service, and the proviso in § 1 of the act declares, in legal effect, that when the laws of a State provide for docketing in her clerks offices, or other offices, the judgments of Federal courts, in the same manner that judgments in her own courts may be docketed, then, and not before, the territorial extent (in other respects they were already the same) of the lien of a judgment in a Fed eral court in that State shall be the of a transcript thereof, in any State office within the same county or the same parish in the State of Louisiana in which the judgment or decree is rendered, in order that such judgment or decree may be a lien on any property within such county, if the clerk of the United States court be required by law to have a permanent office and a judgment record open at all times for public inspection in such county or parish.' The clerk cannot charge a fee for allowing an individual or a corporation to inspect these indices or records. 6 § 481. Correction of judgments by courts that rendered them. In the correction, amendment, and vacation of their own judgments, the Federal courts act independently of the law regulating the State courts. "The question relates to the power of the courts and not to the mode of procedure." 2 It has been said that, in a removed case, they have the powers vested in the State court.3 At the term at which it is entered, a judgment may, for cause shown, be set aside, modified or amended, by the court where it was entered. A party may be relieved from the consequences of a default in pleading caused by mistake, surprise or excusable neglect. A criminal sentence may be modified at the same term.6 After the term has expired, unless a motion for the relief was made or noticed during that term, a judgment of which 147 U. S. 375, 37 L. ed. 209. 5 37 St. at L. 311. 6 Re Chambers, 44 Fed. 786. § 481. 1 Bronson V. Schulten, 104 U. S. 410, 417, 26 L. ed. 797, 799; U. S. v. Mayer, 235 U. S. 55; O'Connor v. O'Connor, C. C. A.. 142 Fed. 449; Wellman v. Bethea, 213 Fed. 367; contra, Travelers' Protective Ass'n v. Gilbert, C. C. A., 55 L.R.A. 538, 111 Fed. 269, 176; Virginia T. & C. Steel & Iron Co. v. Harris, C. C. A., 151 Fed. 428. 2 Bronson v. Schulten, 104 U. S. 410, 417, 26 L. ed. 797, 799, per Miller, J.; Ex parte Casey, 18 Fed. 86. 3 Cady v. Associated Colonies, 119 Fed. 420. Contra, Bronson v. Schulten, 104 U. S. 410, 417, 26 L. ed. 797, 799. 4 Bronson v. Schulten, 104 U. S. 410, 415, 26 L. ed. 797, 799. 5 Kinney v. Beaver, 140 Fed. 792. See supra, $172; Howie Mining Co. v. MeGary, 256 Fed. 38; Cf. Grant v. National Bank of Auburn, 221 Fed. 1007. For a case where such a motion was denied for lack of diligence. Keeler Bros. v. Yellowstone Valley Nat. Bank, 235 Fed. 270. 6 Re Graves, 117 Fed. 798; Cf. Re Morse, 117 Fed. 763; infra, § 532. 7 Amy v. Watertown, 130 U. S. the court had jurisdiction cannot be vacated, and no alteration or correction can be made therein except by writ of error, and in that class of cases in which the writ of error coram nobis was issued in the old English practice. It has been held that this cannot be done, although authorized by a State statute,9 nor when the attorneys have stipulated that the judgment should abide the event of a writ of error in another suit.10 The only remedy by the party aggrieved is in equity.11 The consent of the parties is not sufficient to give the court jurisdiction to grant such relief.12 This rule applies to an order dismissing a complaint for failure to prosecute which contains a direction for the entry of judgment accordingly with costs,13 but not, it has been held, to a docket entry of dismissal made by the clerk in obedience to a general order applicable to all cases in which no action had been taken for two years.1 S.14 301, 313, 32 L. ed. 946, 950; Bronson v. Schulten, 104 U. S. 410, 415, 416, 26 L. ed. 797, 799;. Kleever v. Seawall, 65 Fed. 373; Levy v. Caledonian Ins. Co., 226 Fed. 336. See U. S. R. S., § 987. 8 Bronson v. Schulten, 104 U. S. 410, 415, 416, 26 L. ed. 797, 799; Phillips v. Negley, 117 U. S. 665, 29 L. ed. 1013; Hickman v. Fort Scott, 141 U. S. 415, 35 L. ed. 775; Rio Grande Irrigation Co. v. Gildersleeve, 174 U. S. 603, 609, 43 L. ed. 1103, 1105; Tubman v. Balt. & O. R. Co., 190 U. S. 38, 47 L. ed. 946; Wetmore v. Karrick, 205 U. S. 141, 51 L. ed. 745; U. S. v. Mayer, 235 U. S. 55; Hook v. Mercantile Tr. Co., 89 Fed. 410; Hamburg-Bremen Fire Ins. Co. v. Pelzer Mfg. Co., C. C. A., 76 Fed. 479, 481; U. S. v. Four Lorgnette Holders, 132 Fed. 564; O'Connor v. O'Connor, C. C. A., 142 Fed. 449; United States v. One Trunk, 155 Fed. 651; U. S. v. Taylor, 157 Fed. 718. See supra, $$ 443, 444. But in the District of Delaware a judgment by default was set aside upon motion at a subsequent term, where the defendant's attorney had believed that the suit was brought in the State court. Brown v. Phila. W. & B. R. Co., 9 Fed. 183. 9 Bronson v. Schulten, 104 U. S. 410, 417, 26 L. ed. 797, 799; O'Connor v. O'Connor, C. C. A., 142 Fed. 449; U. S. v. Mayer, 235 U. S. 55; Wellman v. Bethea, 213 Fed. 367; Loewe v. Union Saving Bank, 222 Fed. 342. Contra, Cady v. Associated Colonies, 119 Fed. 420; Virginia, T. & C. Steel & Iron Co. v. Harris, C. C. A., 151 Fed. 428. 10 Brown v. Arnold, 127 Fed. 387. 11 Hamburg-Bremen Fire Ins. Co. v. Pelzer Manuf'g Co., C. C. A., 76 Fed. 479; U. S. v. Taylor, 157 Fed. 718; Tryon v. Pennsylvania R. Co., 213 Fed. 49; Re National Telephone Mfg. Co., C. C. A., 230 Fed. 785; Forty Fort Coal Co. v. Kirkendall, 233 Fed. 704. 12 U. S. v. Mayer, 235 U. S. 55. 13 S. M. Hamilton Coal Co. v. Watts, 232 Fed. 832. 14 U. S. v. Sixty-Five Cases of Glove Leather, 254 Fed. 211. |