
    Jacob Guise v. John Middleton.
    DECEMBER TERM, 1843.
    Where a decree of sale of property is made, it is generally left to counsel to designate the length of time and mode of publication of the sale; the Court taking care that the notice is reasonable and fair.
    A decree cannot be amended after it is enrolled in a matter of materiality, unless the record exhibits something to amend by ; a mere clerical mistake, or miscalculation, may be amended at any time, when the mistake is apparent on the face of the decree or record.
    Where decree by mistake, required certain property to be advertised for six months for sale, when it was intended to be advertised for only six weeks, and the decree had been enrolled, the Court refused to amend it.
    Upon motion to amend the decree made in this case :
    
      W. Yerger, for motion.
    The amendment desired, is- to obtain a change in the length of time required by the decree for the publication of the property. The decree is an ordinary one ,for the sale of mortgaged premises, and counsel, in drafting the decree, (it was not drawn up by myself,) by inadvertence, inserted six months, instead of six weeks, the usual period. The mistake was not detected until after the decree was signed by your Honor. I have no interest in the case, and make the application at the request of Mr. Stewart, who is the counsel of record.
    By the Chancellor. Has the decree been enrolled ?
    Clerk. It has, sir.
   Chancellor.

I have been in the habit of allowing counsel to designate the length of publication in decrees of this sort, without prescribing any limit, except to see that the notice be reasonable and fair. It is a matter in which the parties in interest have been left to their own discretion, except that the Court will not permit injustice to be done.

But, unless the minutes of the Court show something to correct the decree by, or the law affixes a positive limitation, the decree, after it has been enrolled, cannot be altered.

The rule is this : That any mere misprision of the clerk, or error in the calculation of principal or interest, apparent upon the face of the decree or' record, the Court will order, as a matter of course, to be amended, after enrolment, or .even after the term has elapsed. Such errors must be corrected, to preserve the consistency of the records, by which they must be regulated. Any error, not apparent of record, cannot be amended after enrollment.

The Court cannot, therefore, in a matter so material as the length of time for which the property must be advertised, where the minutes show nothing whatever to amend by, order the correction. Had I been prescribing, myself, the proper time for the publication to continue, I should probably not have exceeded one sixth the period now required by the decree ; but I have allowed counsel a discretion ; they have exercised it, it may be, improvidently ; but I cannot now alter it.

Let the motion be overruled.  