57 P. 308 | Idaho | 1899
— This suit was brought to perpetually enjoin the enforcement of a judgment entered in a justice’s court against appellant for the sum of $401.80 damages. The complaint in said court prayed for judgment for the sum of $291.35 principal, and interest claimed to be due thereon, amounting to $110.45, malting a total demand of $401.80, all of which appears from the judgment-roll. The question as to the jurisdiction of the justice of the peace to enter judgment was not raised in tire court below, but it is a question that may be raised at any time. In deciding this question, we have examined the laws of Congress pertaining to the creation of Idaho territory, and acts amendatory thereof, and we find that section 1927 of the Eevised Statutes of the United States, as found on page 38 of the Eevised Statutes of Idaho of 1887, provides that justices of the peace "shall not have jurisdiction of any matter in controversy where the debt or sum claimed exceeds three hundred dollars.” The legislature of the then territory of Idaho, in defining the jurisdiction of justices of the peace, uses substantially the same language used in said act of Congress. It is provided, among other things, in section 3851 oí the Eevised Statutes that the jurisdiction of a justice’s court shall extend to actions arising on contract for the recovery of money only where the sum claimed does not exceed the sum of $300. The