Definition: practice. This takes place when the court withhold judgment from the plaintiff on the ground that there is some error appearing on the face of the record, which vitiates the proceedings. In consequence of such error, on whatever part of the record it may arise, from the commencement of the suit to the time when the motion in arrest of judgment is made, the court are bound to arrest the judgment.
2. It is, however, only with respect to objections apparent on the record, that such motions can be made. They cannot, in general, be made in respect to formal objections. This was formerly otherwise, and judgments were constantly arrested for matters of mere form; 3 Bl. Corn. 407; 2 Reeves, 448; but this abuse has been long remedied by certain statutes passed at different periods, called the statutes of amendment and jeofails, by the effect of which, judgments, cannot, in general, now be arrested for any objection of form. Steph. Pl. 117; see 3 Bl. Com. 393; 21 Vin. Ab. 457; 1 Sell. Pr. 496.
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