3 Mo. 33 | Mo. | 1831
delivered the opinion of the Court.
It appears by the record that in the year 1822, Jeffrie, the plaintiff in error, by Rachel Camp, his next friend, by Robert Wash, Esq., an attorney at law, presented
The points made by the plaintiff in error are, that the Court erred in refusing to set aside the judgment for irregularity. Secondly. That the plaintiff appeared by a next friend and by attorney in the Court below, so that if he was an infant, the appearance by an attorney is error; and thirdly, that if the record does not show the infancy of the plaintiff!, then the Court must take the truth to be that Jeffrie Was an adult, and that an adult, except in cases of coverture, cannot appear by a next friend.-
On the first point it is not entirely clear that the Court should have set the pro-ceedings aside, for the irregularity was occasioned by the act of the plaintiff, or by the act of some one who intended to act for him. But on the second ground, there is manifest error in the judgment and proceedings. The law is, that when an infant has cause of suit, the suit may be commenced by guardian or next friend, pre-> viously appointed according to law, and where none has been appointed, then the g'uardianship or next friend may be made without any other formality than the next friend acknowledging in open Court that he will act as such, or the evidence may be made by the acknowledgment being in writing and filed with the declaration. No such evidence exists in this case. There was, therefore, no lawful proehem amy, yet one did in fact act. Now if it did appear that the plaintiff was an infant, which it does not, it would be error to appear by an unauthorized person. This person appears by attorney, as well as by next friend. This would also be error, if the plaintiff were an infant. But so far as any thing appears by the record, we are bound to suppose that this person was not an infant. Nothing appears by which we could distinguish that this plaintiff was not of age, any more'than in other cases, except by a subsequent affidavit. In every case the Court will take every plaintiff and every defendant to be of full age, till the point is made and the evidence heard, and though judgment be rendered against an infant, it is good till reversed. In this case, then, for all the purposes for which the party’s age is to be now considered, we take the plaintiff to have been of full age at the time the suit was commenced. It was unlawful therefore, for R. Camp to present herself as the next friend of this man in the way she did. No one has a right to bring a suit or do the business of another so as to make his acts binding in law upon that other person, without his or her consent.
It is urged by the counsel for the defendant in error, that this was a proceeding under the statute which authorizes persons holden in slavery to sue as poor persons for freedom. We have no doubt that the proceeding was of that character. The act of the Legislature on that subject provides that when any person holden in slavery shall wish to prosecute his suit for freedom, he or she shall present a petition to the Court for leave to sue, and if the Court shall be of opinion that the claim to freedom is well founded, that leave shall be given to the petitioner to sue as a poor person, and the Court shall assign the petitioner counsel. In this case no counsel
The judgment is reversed with costs, and remanded to the Circuit Court for further proceedings.