122 Ga. 503 | Ga. | 1905
A court having jurisdiction of the subject-matter of a controversy, and having acquired jurisdiction of the parties, has authority to render a final judgment in the case. The proposition just stated is in its nature axiomatic; but a court having jurisdiction both of the parties and subject-matter may, before final judgment is entered, lose jurisdiction of either or both. The controlling question in the present case is whether the granting of a continuance by a justice of the peace and an entry to that effect on his docket operate to oust the jurisdiction of that court until the time arrives to which the case has been continued. A court of general jurisdiction has authority to vacate an order of continuance, and when such a court renders a final judgment in the case after the entry of a continuance and before the time ^arrives, to which the case has been continued, the presumption will be that the order of continuance has been duly vacated; and the judgment is therefore not void. A justice’s court is a court of limited jurisdiction, and presumptions in favor of its judgments are not allowed to the same extent that they are in cases of judgments by courts of general jurisdiction. Gray v. McNeal, 12 Ga. 424; White v. Mandeville, 72 Ga. 705, 707; Williams v. Sulter, 76 Ga. 356; Shearouse v. Wolf, 117 Ga. 426. It has been held, however, that where a judgment was rendered in a justice’s court on a day other than the first day of the term, nothing else appearing, there would be a presumption that the court sat from day to day in accordance with the law. Levadas v. Beach, 117 Ga. 178. There are numerous cases, in other jurisdictions, to the effect that an order of continuance in a justice’s court ousts the jurisdiction of the court, and that if a judgment is rendered before the date for trial fixed in the order of continuance this judgment amounts to a discontinuance of the case
The justice’s court is now a court of terms, which sits at fixed times and places, and has power to grant continuances. But these ■continuances are from term to term (Civil Code, § 4101), and not, as heretofore, from the day fixed in the summons to the time fixed by the justice. If the court has jurisdiction of the parties and of the subject-matter on the first day of the term, and the case stands for trial under the law at that time, it may render a final judgment at any time before the term adjourns, unless something has transpired which deprives it of jurisdiction either of the parties or ■of the subject-matter, or both. A continuance of the case does not oust the court of jurisdiction of either the parties or the subject-matter, without reference to whether the court be one of limited or of general jurisdiction. While an order of continuance may be in its nature a judgment, it belongs to that class of judgments usually designated as interlocutory orders, and has none of
Judgment reversed.