61 Mo. App. 185 | Mo. Ct. App. | 1895
The plaintiffs sued the defendant upon an account before a justice of the peace. The defendant appeared, and filed an application for a change of venue properly verified, and based on the ground that the justice was prejudiced against him. The justice overruled the application for a change of venue, on the ground that the defendant refused to pay the costs which had accrued in the case up to the date of the application. Thereupon the defendant refused to proceed any further before the justice, and judgment was entered against him by default, which judgment, upon proof of the damages of the plaintiffs was made final. The defendant appealed in’due time to the circuit court, and moved that court to remand the cause to' the justice with directions to grant him a change of venue. The court overruled this motion, whereupon the defendant declined to appear in the case any further. The circuit court thereupon affirmed the judgment of the justice, and the defendant, after an ineffectual effort to set such affirmance aside, appealed to this court.
As this judgment was void, it could not be affirmed by the circuit court. The affirmance of a void judgment goes for naught. State v. Geiger, 45 Mo. App. 111. The defendant’s motion to remand the cause to the justice with directions to grant the change of venue should have been sustained. A defendant sued before a justice has a statutory right to have the cause of
It results that the judgment must be reversed. All the judges concurring, it is ordered that the judgment be reversed and that the cause be remanded to the circuit court with directions to vacate the judgment of the justice, and to remand the cause to that magistrate, ordering him to grant the change of venue applied for.