Page:North Dakota Reports (vol. 48).pdf/39

 collusion, or through some agreement entered into by the prevailing party, and which he neglected or refused to perform." Freeman, 4th ed. § 334.

"The settled policy of the law forbidding that a matter once adjudicated shall be again drawn in issue while the former adjudication remains in force does not permit the prosecution of an action for obtaining a judgment by false and fraudulent practices, or by false and forged evidence. Neither can a party against whom judgment has been recovered sustain an action against his adversary and the witnesses for damages occasioned by their conspiring together and procuring a judgment by fraud or per- jury, as long as the judgment remains in force and unreversed; because the charges made in the second action are conclusively negatived by the former adjudication." Freeman, Judgm. 4th ed. § 289. See also 23 Cyc. p. 1066.

In considering the effect of a judgment which had been pleaded as a defense in an action for malicious prosecution (and in referring to the rule that a judgment, by a court having jurisdiction of the parties and of the subject-matter, in favor of the plaintiff, is sufficient evidence of probable cause for the institution of the action in which the judgment is rendered, even though the judgment is subsequently reversed by an appellate tribunal), the supreme court of the United States, said: "The rule, therefore, has respect to the court and to its judgment, and not to the parties, and no misconduct or demerit on their part, except fraud in procuring the judgment itself, can be permitted to detract from its force. It is equally true and equally well settled in the foundations of the law that neither misconduct nor demerit can be imputed to the court itself. It is an invincible presumption of the law that the judicial tribunal, acting within its jurisdiction, has acted impartially and honestly. The record of its proceedings imports verity; its judgments cannot be impugned except Ly direct process from superior authority. The integrity and value of the judicial system, as an institution for the administration of public and private justice, rests largely upon this wholesome principle." Crescent City L. S. L. & S. H. Co. v. Butcher’s Union, S. H. & L. S. L. Co. 120 U. S. 141, 159, 30 L. ed. 614, 621, 7 Sup. Ct. Rep. 472.

When a court of general jurisdiction acts within its jurisdiction, every presumption is in favor of its judgment. This includes the presumption that such courts act rightly and in conformity to law. In other words, where the decree is such a one as the court had jurisdiction to render, the presumptions are all in favor of its regularity and validity until vacated