This term may denote any court subordinate to the chief appellate tribunal in the particular judicial system; but it is commonly used as the designation of a court of special, limited, or statutory jurisdiction, whose record must show the existence and attaching of jurisdiction in any given case, in order to give presumptive validity to its judgment See Ex parte Cuddy, 131 U. S. 280, 9 Sup. Ct 703, 33 L. Ed. 154; Kempe v. Kennedy, 5 Cranch, 185, 3 L. Ed. 70; Grignon v. Astor, 2 How. 341, 11 L. Ed. 283; Swift v. Wayne Circuit Judges, 64 Mich. 479, 31 N. W. 434; Kirkwood v. Washington County, 32 Or. 568, 52 Pac. 568.
The English courts of judicature are classed generally under two heads, the superior courts and the inferior courts; the former division comprising the courts at Westminster. the latter comprising all the other courts in general, many of which, however,’ are far from being of inferior importance in. the common acceptation of the word. Brown.