243 Mo. 409 | Mo. | 1912
This is a suit upon an assigne1 account for a balance of $1318.17 due on a sale of glassware, alleged to bave been delivered to defendant as per bill of items attached to the petition, on or about the 2d day of December, 1907. The answer was a general denial and a further defense “that during all the time alleged in plaintiff’s said petition and in the ex-
OPINION.
I. On the face of the record proper the question arises as to the jurisdiction of this court to determine this appeal. The amount in controversy is less than $7500, the present pecuniary limit of jurisdiction of the Courts of Appeal. Unless there is some constitutional warrant for the entertainment of this appeal by this court, the cause must be transferred to the proper Court of Appeals to bé heard and determined by it. [R. S. 1909, sec. 3937.]
It is insisted by appellant, and such is the tenor of its refused instructions, that sections 8965', 8966, 8968 and 8974 of the revision of 1899 (amended, in revision of 1909, vol. 3, chap. 98) are contrary to the Commerce Clause and to the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States, and hence this court is the proper tribunal to consider the appeal taken in this case under the provision of the Constitution of Missouri and the amendment thereto of
In addition to its general denial, the defendant tendered only two issues — that plaintiff’s assignor was prohibited from recovering for the goods sold, by the terms either of the Federal or State Anti-trust law.
The finding of the trial court does not disclose whether it was for failure of plaintiff’s assignor to comply with the Federal or State statute set up in defendant’s answer. That the Federal Act is constitutional has been conclusively settled by the Supreme Court of the United States. [United States v. American Tobacco Co., 221 U. S. 26; Standard Oil Co. v. United States, 221 U. S. 1; Continental Wall Paper Co. v. Voigt & Sons, 212 U. S. 227.] That the State law violates neither the State nor Federal Constitution and that it governs the transactions in business in this State, following within its provisions, is the established law. [State ex inf. v. Harvester Co., 237 Mo. 369; State ex inf. v. Standard Oil Co., 218 Mo. 1; Finck v. Schneider Granite Co., 187 Mo. 244; State ex inf. v. Swartzschild & Sulzberger, 173 Mo. 394; Grote v. National Lead Co., 80 Mo. App. 247; State ex inf. v. Firemen’s Fund Ins. Co., 152 Mo. 1; State ex inf. v. Aetna Ins. Co., 150 Mo. 113.] This was not an open question when the present appeal was taken. If we take cognizance of this appeal, we should sim
If, after the retransfer of this case to the St. Louis Court of Appeals, its conformity to the decisions of this court should be thought by appellant to deny it any right or privilege guaranteed by the Federal Constitution, then a writ of error will lie from that court direct to the Supreme Court of the United States, for in all matters not excluded from its jurisdiction that court is one of final resort. [Railroad v. Pearce, 192 U. S. 179; Pearce v. Railroad, 89 Mo. App. 437.] This case is transferred to the St. Louis Court of Appeals.
PER CURIAM. — The foregoing opinion of Bond, C., is adopted as the opinion of the court.