1 Pennyp. 275 | Pa. | 1881
delivered the opinion of the court,
While it is true, in a certain sense, that on appeal from the judgment of a justice the proceedings are de novo, it is well settled that the cause of action cannot be changed, nor can the demand be increased beyond the limit of the justice’s jurisdiction, except so far as to embrace interest which has accrued since the institution of suit. A verdict and judgment for more than that is conclusive that the action was either erroneously brought or improperly prosecuted; Darrah v. Warnoch, 1 P. & W. 21. In the preseut case the plaintiff’s demand, before the justice, was $75, damages for breach of contract, and for that sum he obtained judgment, from which defendant appealed. In his affidavits filed in court, setting forth more fully the contract and breaches thereof, he claimed the same amount with interest from July 1st 1879. Thus far the record exhibits a cause of action clearly within the jurisdiction of the justice1; but the declaration, containing the common counts, to which is added an inartificially drawn special count on the verbal contract, lays the damages at $500. This might and should have been amended, by leave of court, so as to bring the case properly within its jur
Judgment reversed, and a venire facias de novo awarded.