Cahill v. McGrath (67 Ill. App. 103, 1896)

Mr. Justice Waterman

delivered the opinion of the Court.

The entry in the docket of the justice has none of the elements of a confession of judgment. For a defendant to acknowledge before a justice of the peace, or other court, that he is indebted to the plaintiff in a certain sum, is not to confess or consent to judgment.

A judgment is always the result of a decision by a court, and is entered against a party nolens volens, or because he consents to—confesses—judgment.

There is a manifest and wide distinction between confessing an indebtedness and confessing judgment. Goddard v. Fischer, 23 Ill. App. 365; Campbell v. Randolph, 13 Ill. 313; Elliott v. Daiber, 42 Ill. 467.

The judgment of the Circuit Court is reversed and the cause remanded.