Title XIII: Of Sentence

§ 1. The legitimate pronouncement by which the judge defines a cause proposed by litigants and treated in a judicial manner is a sentence; and it is called interlocutory if it settles an incidental cause, definitive if it settles the principal cause.

§ 2. The other pronouncements of the judge are called decrees.

§ 1. For the pronouncement of any sentence, moral certitude concerning the matter to be defined by the sentence is required in the mind of the judge.

§ 2. The judge must draw this certitude from the acts and proofs.

§ 3. The judge must estimate the proofs from his conscience, unless the law expressly establishes something concerning the efficacy of some proof.

§ 4. A judge who has not been able to form this certitude for himself is to pronounce that the right of the actor is not established and dismiss the defendant, unless there is question of a favorable cause, in which case pronouncement is to be made for it, and with the prescription of can. 1697, Sec. 2 saved.

Sentence must be rendered by the judge when the discussion of the cause has been completed; and if the cause is more involved and more difficult by the mass of contentions or documents, a suitable interval of time can be interposed.

§ 1. In a collegial tribunal, the president of the college is to establish on what day and hour the judges are to come together to deliberate; and unless a particular cause persuades otherwise, the meeting is to be held in the very seat of the tribunal.

§ 2. On the day assigned for the meeting, the individual judges will bring their written conclusions on the merit of the cause, and the reasons, both in fact and in law, by which they have come to their conclusion; these conclusions are to be added to the acts of the cause, to be kept secret.

§ 3. When the conclusions of the individual judges have been brought forth in order, according to precedence, yet so that the beginning is always made by the ponens or relator of the cause, a moderate discussion is to be held under the guidance of the president of the tribunal, especially so that what must be established in the dispositive part of the sentence may be settled.

§ 4. In the discussion, however, it is permitted to each one to depart from his former conclusion.

§ 5. But if in the first discussion the judges are unwilling or unable to come to this sentence, the decision can be deferred to a new meeting, which however must not be postponed beyond a week.

If there is a single judge, it belongs to him alone to draw up the sentence; but in a collegial tribunal the prescription of can. 1584 is to be observed.

§ 1. The sentence must:

1° Define the controversy conducted before the tribunal; that is, absolve or condemn the defendant as regards the petitions or accusations brought forth against him, with a suitable response given to each doubt, or article of the controversy.

2° Determine, at least insofar as it is lawful and the matter permits, what the condemned party must give, do, furnish, or suffer, or from what he must abstain; and likewise in what manner, place, or time the obligation must be fulfilled.

3° Contain the reasons or motives, as they are called, both in fact and in law, on which the dispositive part of the sentence rests.

4° Establish concerning the expenses of the lawsuit.

§ 2. In a collegial tribunal the motives are to be taken by the drafter from those things which the individual judges brought forward in the discussion, unless it has been predefined by the greater part of the judges themselves what motives are to be brought forth.

§ 1. The sentence must be rendered with the divine Name always invoked at the beginning.

§ 2. Then it must express in order who the judge or tribunal is; who the actor, defendant, procurator are, with names and domicile duly designated; the promoter of justice, and the defender of the bond, if they have had a part in the judgment.

§ 3. Afterward it must report briefly the species of fact together with the conclusions of the parties.

§ 4. After these things let there follow the dispositive part of the sentence, with the reasons on which it rests having been premised.

§ 5. Let it be closed with the indication of the day and place in which it was drawn up and with the signature of the judge, or of all the judges if there were several, and of the notary.

The rules placed above have place especially in bringing forth a definitive sentence; but they are also applied, insofar as the different matter permits, in bringing forth an interlocutory sentence.

A sentence, drawn up in this manner, is to be published as soon as possible.

Publication of the sentence can be made in three ways: either by citing the parties to hear the reading of the sentence solemnly made by the judge sitting for the tribunal; or by denouncing to the parties that the sentence is in the chancery of the tribunal, and that faculty is given to them to read the same and request a copy of it; or finally, where the practice is in force, by transmitting a copy of the sentence to the parties through public carriers according to the norm of can. 1719.