66 Tenn. 376 | Tenn. | 1874
delivered the opinion of the court.
These three cases are motions to have land ordered to be sold under judgments and levy of execution from a justice of the peace in Hardeman county.
The papers having been returned' to the Circuit Court, the defendant appeared by attorney and entered a motion to quash the warrant and dismiss the cause, and assigned the following causes for said motion:
1. That the warrant did not run in the name of the State, nor is there any return thereon signed by an officer or other person requiring defendant to appear.
2. It does not show the note sued on is not over five hundred dollars.
3. Defendant is not commanded to appear before any one, on the warrant, and is summoned before D. A. Furguson, and that immediately.
4. The warrant was not issued by a justice of the peace. No endorsement of its issuance.
5. No judgment on the warrant, and no valid judgment in the papers.
7. Judgment void.
The first objection- is met by the fact that the warrant has the well known and almost universal abbreviation Tenn., for the name of the State. This as certainly shows the name of the State as if it had been written out at length. We cannot shut our eyes to what we know to be its meaning. The second branch of the objection is, that the return was not signed by any officer or other person. Our first impression was , that it was error in the court to allow the officer to amend his return by signing his name to it, but on examination of our cases on the subject, we conclude that it was proper. In a case in 6 Hum., 98, after notice that a motion would be made against him, but before it was entered, the sheriff was allowed, on affidavit, to amend an insufficient return, and thus shield himself from liability. In the case of Atkinson & Cobb v. Rhea, 7 Hum., 60, on certio-rari and supersedeas to quash a levy made upon property of a surety instead of on the property of the principal, the return seems to have been amended, and the court say: “ In cases where the sheriff is no party he may be allowed to amend his return at any time so as to state the truth of the case. No injury can accrue by permitting a return to be amended under such circumstances. The officer is under no temptation to make a false return, as would be the case if a proceeding had been commenced against him
The objection that the warrant did not show the note sued on was under five hundred dollars, we do not think. tenable. . The want of jurisdiction does not affirmatively appear in the warrant. Baker v. Allen, 2 Tenn. R., 553. A magistrate does have jurisdiction on ’a note, and we cannot by intendment say that this .’fras one above his jurisdiction. All intendments are/ to be in favor of the proceedings of these tribunals, not against them.
/ The next objection is, that defendant is not commanded to appear before anyone in the warrant, and is summoned to appear before E>. A. Furguson, and that immediately. The warrant on its face says, “summon W. B. Jordan to appear before me or some other justice to answer,” etc., and is signed by D. A. Furguson, J. P. The return of the officer is, that he summoned him to appear before D. A. Furguson immediately. This certainly was sufficient, as it was executed by reading the warrant to him. He could not well misunderstand it as to appearing immediately, as we know of no time fixed by law in which the party shall be required to appear in such cases. We
That the justice did not note the fact of issuance on the back of the warrant does not affect the validity of the proceeding. The statute is directory \to the officer, but the fact that warrant was issued and* the party actually summoned, gives jurisdiction to \;he court. The notation of the fact is not essential V,o its validity. \
The fifth objection in case No. 11, and the only objection taken in No. 9 and 10 is, that the judgment of the magistrate was not endorsed on the warrant, but seems to have been on the face of the notes and account on which the judgment had been rendered. This defect, if one, was attempted to be cured by a certified copy of the justice’s docket containing the judgment, which was allowed over the objection of the defendant. The judgment need not be entered on the warrant in order to its validity. Hollins v. Johnson, 3 Head, 348. By the Code, sec. 3080, when an. execution from a justice of the peace is levied on
The next question is, was the judgment thus sent up or presented a valid judgment? for if void on its face then the court ought not to have condemned and ordered a sale under it of defendant’s land. 11 Hum., 450. The justice’s docket shows the following: Elliott & Co. v. W. B. Jordan, Judgt., 346.82, in one case, and the same, varying the amounts, in the other cases.
The act of 1845, ch. 17, which is carried into the Code, sec. 4129, almost verbatim, provided that the justice should keep in a well bound book a docket of all judgments rendered by him, which shall show in whose favor and against whom each judgment was rendered, also the date of its rendition, and the amount thereof.
Under this statute, in Johnson v. Billingsly, 3 Hum., 153, the court held a judgment valid which was as
It is evident these two cases make this judgment valid, as it shows more on its face than the first, and is equal to the second. In fact, we readily understand from the face of the judgment, taken in connection with the title of the case, Elliott & Co. v. W. B. Jordan, that the judgment is in favor of the plaintiffs against the defendant. If it had been otherwise, the entry would have been under title judgment “for defendant.” Under sec. 4176 of the Code, requiring that “every intendment is in favor of the sufficiency and validity of proceedings before justices of the peace, when brought in question, either collaterally or directly, in any of the courts of this State, where it appears on the face of the proceedings that the justice has jurisdiction of the subject, matter and the parties.” If . the judgments we have cited were held good before this express requirement, much more shall the one before us be held valid, since we are bound to make every intendment in their favor by express mandate of the Legislature. It is true, as argued, that since the business of these tribunals is largely increased and their jurisdiction raised, that larger interests are involved in
For these reasons, and upon these authorities, we hold the judgments valid on their face.
The case 11 Hum., 221, is not in conflict with the above cases, as the entry held invalid in that case was a mere memorandum on the account — “judgment $37 —with no parties stated, and not made at any trial of the suit.
This disposes of all the questions deemed proper to
The result is the judgment must be affirmed.