37 Mo. App. 595 | Mo. Ct. App. | 1889
delivered the opinion of the court.
At the close of the plaintiff’s evidence, the court instructed that the plaintiff could not recover. When this instruction was given, the plaintiff submitted to a nón-suit, with leave to file a motion to set it aside; this motion was filed, and was by the court overruled, and the plaintiff tendered his bill of exceotions and asked for an appeal to this court.
The circuit court, as we gather it from the record, was of the opinion that the papers filed before the justice, and which the plaintiff! claimed constituted his statement, failed to state' a cause of action. The transcript of the justice shows that a statement of the plaintiff’s cause of action was filed, but no such document appears among the papers transmitted by the justice, unless the certified copy of the mechanics’ lien, and a copy of the notice of suit, both of which appear in the record, can be treated as a statement of plaintiff’s cause of action. The plaintiff insists that this should be done, and that these documents contain a statement of all facts necessary for securing a lien on the property of the defendants. This view presents some very serious objections. Section 2874, Revised Statutes, 1879, provides that before the justice can issue any process in a proceeding to enforce a mechanic’s lien, the plaintiff must file with the justice a statement of the facts constituting his cause of action;. in other words, the jurisdiction of the magistrate depends upon the previous filing of the statement. It is well settled, and must be conceded, that the jurisdiction of inferior courts must affirmatively appear upon the face of their' proceedings, and that no presumption will be indulged in support of such jurisdiction. In the case at bar there is no evidence in the record that the copy of the mechanic’s lien, and the copy of the notice of this suit, were filed with the justice before the process was issued. It does not appear when these papers were filed, or that they were at any time actually filed as papers in the cause. They are not marked as filed by the magistrate. It is true that the officer attached them to his transcript, and sent them to the appellate court as papers in the case,
The papers in the present case contain no averment, either directly or' inferentially, that the work was done, or the materials furnished within six months prior to the filing of lien papers. Therefore, any view of the case must inevitably lead to an affirmance of the judgment.
the judgment will be affirmed.