126 Iowa 398 | Iowa | 1905
The justice of the peace rendering the .judgment acquired jurisdiction of the case by change of venue from another justice, and when the case was reached for trial defendant not only denied the plaintiff’s cause of action, which was for $100, and therefore within the justice’s jurisdiction, but also interposed a counterclaim for $268, an amount in excess of the justice’s jurisdiction. Thereupon the defendant in that case moved the justice to transmit the cause to the district court on the ground that the amount in controversy, after the filing of the counterclaim, exceeded the jurisdiction of the justice, and precluded him from proceeding further. The justice .sustained this motion, and made a proper entry of his action on his docket.' Fourteen days afterward, the justice, on his own motion, made another entry in his docket, reciting that upon further consideration, and investigation he found there was no statutory authority
As the judgment, on which the execution sought to be enjoined was based, was rendered without any jurisdiction whatever on the part of the justice, it was not necessary for-plaintiff to show a meritorious defense in his action to restrain its enforcement. Rowley v. Baugh, 33 Iowa, 201.
The judgment of the lower court is affirmed.