Sections 518 and 344 of the Civil Code of Practice do not apply to, and cannot be invoked in, criminal cases. Coldiron v. Commonwealth, 205 Ky. 729, 266 S.W. 374, and Montjoy v. Commonwealth, 270 Ky. 470, 109 S.W.2d 1209. Motion for a new trial apparently was made pursuant to Section 763 of the Civil Code of Practice. It is quite obvious that appellant had known for a number of years of the judgments of conviction.
Apparently appellant is attempting to proceed under Section 518 of the Civil Code of Practice, but this section does not apply to criminal cases. Wellington v. Commonwealth, 159 Ky. 462, 167 S.W. 427; Coldiron v. Commonwealth, 205 Ky. 729, 266 S.W. 374; Jones v. Commonwealth, 269 Ky. 779, 108 S.W.2d 816. The procedure for obtaining new trials in criminal cases is set forth in Sections 271 to 274 of the Criminal Code of Practice. In order to obtain a new trial of a criminal case, the application must be made at the same term at which the verdict is rendered unless the judgment be postponed to another term. Criminal Code, Section 273. Six days of the September, 1939, term of the Russell circuit court remained after the judgment was entered and four days after appellant left the hospital.
With reference to civil cases, sections 344 and 518 of our Civil Code of Practice enacted remedies, available to unsuccessful litigants in order to entitle them to take advantage of facts discovered after the term in which judgment was rendered against them, and it might be true that such remedies superseded the common-law writ of coram nobis or coram vobis in so far as applicable to civil proceedings. However, we have held in a number of cases, among which are Wellington v. Commonwealth, 159 Ky. 462, 167 S.W. 427, Greer v. Commonwealth, 165 Ky. 715, 178 S.W. 1027, and Coldiron v. Commonwealth, 205 Ky. 729, 266 S.W. 374, that the remedies provided by those sections do not apply to criminal prosecutions and are not available to defendants accused and convicted of violations of our criminal law. We therefore conclude that the writ herein applied for is available to appellant; provided his alleged facts bring the case within the purview of the common-law writ he invokes.