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IV. OF APPEALS.

94. An Appeal is the removal of a judicial case, by a written representation, from an inferior to a superior judicatory; and may be taken, by either of the original parties, from the final judgment of the lower judicatory. These parties shall be called Appellant and Appellee. Final judgments in judicial cases shall be subject to reversal and modification only by appeal, and no judicatory from whose final judgment an appeal shall have been taken shall be heard in the appellate judicatory, further than by the reading of the dissents, protests, and written opinions of its members assenting to or dissenting from its judgments. When a judicial case has been decided by a Judicial Commission of an inferior judicatory, sitting during an interval between the meetings of the electing judicatory, an appeal from the judgment of such Commission may be taken and prosecuted before a superior judicatory, in the same manner as if the judgment had been rendered by the judicatory.

95. The grounds of Appeal may be such as these: Irregularity in the proceedings of the inferior judicatory; refusal to entertain an Appeal; refusal of reasonable indulgence to a party on trial; receiving improper, or declining to receive important, testimony; hastening to a decision before the testimony is fully taken; manifestation of prejudice in the conduct of the case; and mistake or injustice in the decision.

96. Written notice of Appeal, with specifications of the errors alleged, shall be given, within ten days after the judgment has been rendered, to the Clerk, or, in case of his death, absence, or disability, to the Moderator, of the judicatory appealed from, who shall lodge it, with the records and all the papers pertaining to the case, with the Clerk of the superior judicatory, before the close of the second day of its regular meeting next ensuing the date of his reception of said notice.

97. The appellant shall appear in person or by counsel

before the judicatory appealed to, on or before the close of the second day of its regular meeting next ensuing the date of the filing of his notice of Appeal, and shall lodge his Appeal and specifications of the errors alleged, with the Clerk of the superior judicatory, within the time above specified. If he fail to show to the satisfaction of the judicatory that he was unavoidably prevented from so doing, he shall be considered as having abandoned his Appeal, and the judgment shall stand.

98. Neither the appellant, nor the members of the judicatory appealed from, shall sit, deliberate, or vote in the case.

99. When due notice of an Appeal has been given, and the Appeal and the specifications of the errors alleged have been filed in due time, the Appeal shall be considered in order. The judgment, the notice of Appeal, the Appeal, and the specifications of the errors alleged, shall be read; and the judicatory may then determine, after hearing the parties, whether the Appeal shall be entertained. If it be entertained, the following order shall be observed:

(1) The record in the case, from the beginning, shall be read, except what may be omitted by consent.

(2) The parties shall be heard, the appellant opening and closing.

(3) Opportunity shall be given to the members of the superior judicatory to be heard.

(4) The vote shall then be separately taken, without debate, on each specification of error alleged, the question being taken in the form: "Shall the specification of error be sustained?" If no one of the specifications be sustained, and no error be found by the judicatory in the record, the judgment of the inferior judicatory shall be affirmed. If one or more errors be found, the judicatory shall determine, whether the judgment of the inferior judicatory shall be reversed or modified, or the case remanded for a new trial; and the judgment, accompanied by a recital of the error or errors found, shall be entered

on the record. If the judicatory deem it. wise, an ex planatory minute may be adopted which shall be a part of the record of the case.

100. When the judgment directs admonition or rebuke, notice of Appeal shall suspend all further proceedings; but in other cases the judgments shall be in force until the Appeal is decided.

101. The judicatory whose judgment is appealed from shall send up its records, and all the papers relating thereto, and filed with the record. If it fails to do this, it shall be censured; and the sentence appealed from shall be suspended, until a record is produced on which the issue can be fairly tried.

102. Appeals are, generally, to be taken to the judicatory immediately superior to that appealed from.

CHAPTER X.

OF DISSENTS AND PROTESTS.

103. A DISSENT is a declaration of one or more members of a minority in a judicatory, expressing disagreement with a decision of the majority in a particular case.

104. A Protest is a more formal declaration, made by one or more members of a minority, bearing testimony against what is deemed a mischievous or erroneous proceeding, decision, or judgment, and including a statement of the reasons therefor.

105. If a Dissent or Protest be couched in decorous and respectful language, and be without offensive reflections or insinuations against the majority, it shall be entered on the records.

106. The judicatory may prepare an answer to any protest which imputes to it principles or reasonings which its action does not import, and the answer shall also be entered upon the records. Leave may thereupon be given to the protestant or protestants, if they desire it, to modify

their Protest; and the answer of the judicatory may also, in consequence, be modified. This shall end the

matter.

107. No one shall be allowed to dissent or protest who has not a right to vote on the question decided,—and, in judicial cases, no one shall be allowed to dissent or protest who did not vote against the decision; provided, that when a judicial case has been decided by a Judicial Commision, any member of the judicatory to which the decision is reported, may enter his dissent or protest, or his answer to any protest, in the same manner as if the case had been tried before the judicatory itself, and he had voted thereon; and provided, that when a judicial case has been decided by a Judicial Commission, sitting during an interval between the meetings of the electing judicatory, any member of such judicatory or of the Commission may, within ten days after the rendering of the judgment by the Commission, file his dissent from or protest against the judgment with the Clerk of the Commission; and the Commission or any member thereof may, within twenty days after the rendering of the judgment, similarly file an answer to any protest; and the Clerk of the Commission shall enter upon the record all dissents, protests, and answers, or shall forward the same to the Stated Clerk of the electing judicatory to be so entered by him.

CHAPTER XI.

OF JURISDICTION IN CASES OF DISMISSION.

108. THE judicatory, to which a church member or a minister belongs, shall have sole jurisdiction for the trial of offences whenever or wherever committed by him.

109. A member of a church, receiving a certificate of dismission to another church, shall continue to be a member of the church giving him the certificate, and subject to the jurisdiction of its session (but shall not deliberate

or vote in a church meeting, nor exercise the functions of any office), until he has become a member of the church to which he is recommended, or some other evangelical church; and, should he return the certificate, within a year from its date, the session shall make record of the fact, but he shall not thereby be restored to the exercise of the functions of any office previously held by him in that church.

110. In like manner, a minister shall be subject to the jurisdiction of the presbytery which dismissed him (but shall not deliberate or vote, nor be counted in the basis of representation to the General Assembly), until he actually becomes a member of another presbytery; but, should he return the certificate of dismission within a year from its date, the presbytery shall make record of the fact, and restore him to the full privileges of membership.

111. A presbytery, giving a certificate of dismission to a minister, licentiate, or candidate for licensure, shall specify the particular body to which he is recommended; and, if recommended to a presbytery, no other than the one designated, if existing, shall receive him.

112. If a church becomes extinct, the presbytery with which it was connected shall have jurisdiction over its members, and grant them letters of dismission to some other church. It shall, also, determine any case of discipline begun by the session and not concluded.

113. If a presbytery becomes extinct, the synod, with which it was connected, shall have jurisdiction over its members, and may transfer them to any presbytery within its bounds. It shall, also, determine any case of discipline begun by the presbytery and not concluded.

CHAPTER XII.

OF REMOVALS, AND LIMITATIONS OF TIME.

114. WHEN any member shall remove from one church to another, he shall produce a certificate, ordinarily not

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