232 Mo. 496 | Mo. | 1911
This is an application for a writ of prohibition against the judges of the Springfield Court of Appeals and a judge of the St. Louis Circuit Court to prevent further action in this case, which was trans
The application is based upon the following facts:
At the October term, 1906, of the circuit of the city of St. Louis, one William Moudy, as plaintiff, obtained a judgment against the St. Louis Dressed Beef & Provision Company, a corporation, for personal injuries, in the sum of $5000'. The case was appealed to this court, and was later transferred from this court to the St. Louis Court of Appeals. Subsequently to this, and while the ease was pending in the St. Louis Court of Appeals, it was transferred to the Springfield Court of Appeals by virtue of the provisions of section 3939, Revised Statutes 1909, authorizing such transfers. Thereafter the case was docketed in the Springfield Court of Appeals, and the original defendant, petitioner in this case, appeared by counsel and orally argued the same. The Springfield Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment of the circuit court of the city of St. Louis, and has sent its. mandate to the last named court.
Relator contends that, notwithstanding its appearance in the Springfield Court of Appeals, that court had no jurisdiction to decide the ease, and that, consequently, its judgment and mandate are void.
Article 6 of the Constitution provides that the jurisdiction of the St. Louis Court of Appeals and the Kansas City Court of Appeals shall be “coextensive” with the counties assigned to each court respectively. A similar provision is made by the act (R. S. 1909, sec. 3926) creating the Springfield Court of Appeals. In the recent case of State ex rel. Dunham v. Nixon, 232 Mo. 98, this court, referring to said article 6, said: “When jurisdiction of a certain character is by that article conferred on a particular court, the jurisdiction so conferred is exclusive.” It follows from this that each court of appeals has exclusive jurisdiction of appeals arising within its territorial limits,
It is urged that inasmuch as the Springfield Court of Appeals has jurisdiction of causes of a similar nature to the one at bar, i. e., of causes arising from personal injuries, it therefore had jurisdiction of the subject-matter of the action, and that objections to the jurisdiction of the persons were waived by appearance. This proposition is based on the well-known rule that want of jurisdiction of the. person is cured by appearance, where the court has jurisdiction of the subject-matter. In the light of this rule, however, we get but a superficial view of the matter. The real question lies deeper. It is this: Can the parties, by consent, invest a court with power not authorized by law or conferred upon it by the Constitution?
The Springfield Court of Appeals possesses limited powers. It is not a court of general inherent jurisdiction. In cases of the class to which belongs the case at bar it has appellate jurisdiction only. Under the law as construed by this court, the Springfield court has no jurisdiction or power to review cases
In view of the importance of the question under consideration, we will refer to the following cases.
The law of Tennessee provided that appeals and writs of error should lie from inferior courts within each of the three divisions of the State to the Supreme Court of that division. A case, by consent of the parties, was appealed from one division to the Supreme Court of another division. The Supreme Court of each division had jurisdiction of the subject-matter of causes — using that term in its ordinary sense — but by statute had jurisdiction only of appeals arising within its district. The Supreme Court of Tennessee held that the case should be stricken from the docket, because the appeal arose outside the territorial limits of the division. [Memphis Freight Co. v. The Mayor of Memphis, 3 Cold. (Tenn.) 249.]
The Constitution of Connecticut, article 5, section 1, provides: “The judicial power of the State shall be vested in a Supreme Court of Errors, a Superior
The Iowa code provides-as follows: “On written contracts stipulating for payment at a particular place, action may be brought in the township where the payment was agreed to be made.” [Sec. 4481, Iowa Code 1897.] A suit was brought before a justice of the peace in a township other than the one in which the contract was payable. The Supreme Court of Iowa held that the justice had no jurisdiction, and further, that the defendant’s appearance before the justice, and his failure to raise the question there, did not give the district court, to which the case was appealed, juris
The Supreme Court of Colorado says: “Appeals are creatures of the statute; neither joinder in error nor the consent of parties can confer jurisdiction upon this court by appeal.” [Gordon v. Gray, 19 Colo. 167.]
In the case of Descalso v. San Francisco, 60 Cal. 296, there was an appeal from the judgment of the justice’s court to the county court. Under the law, the county court could transfer cases to the Municipal Court of Appeals, which had jurisdiction to hear and determine such cases as should be transferred to it from the county court, and none other. The defendant appeared in the Municipal Court of Appeals, and submitted to its jurisdiction, but afterwards objected to the jurisdiction on the ground that the case had never been transferred from the county court. This contention was upheld by the Supreme Court, which said: “But the Municipal Court of Appeals could not acquire jurisdiction of the person of .the defendant or the subject of the action except by. a transfer from the county court; and the law did not provide that the voluntary appearance of a defendant in the Municipal Court of Appeals should be equivalent to a transfer of tbe case to it from the county court.”
In the case of St. Louis v. Gunning Co., 138 Mo. 347, the defendant was convicted in the police court for violation of a city ordinance regulating the erection of signs. An appeal was taken to the St. Louis
In Dennis v. Bailey, 104 Mo. App. 638, the court held, where an action in replevin was brought before a justice of the peace in Sullivan county, where the property was located, but both plaintiff and defendant were residents of Grundy county, that in such case the suit in replevin should be brought in some court of
In the case last cited the justice had jurisdiction of the subject-matter, that is, the action of replevin, but under the statute he had no jurisdiction of such actions where both parties were nonresidents of-the county. In Dodson v. Scroggs, 47 Mo. l. c. 287, the court said: “The exclusive jurisdiction given to the probate court of Dade, by implication prohibits all other courts from acting. . . . The authorities cited by counsel for plaintiff abundantly show, and only show, that the right to object to jurisdiction over the person may be waived; but the law alone, and not consent of parties, must decide what matters each particular court may hear and determine.”
Bailey on Jurisdiction, sec. 50', says: “Where an appellate court has no jurisdiction to review, by appeal or otherwise, the judgment of an inferior court, jurisdiction cannot be conferred on such court by consent of parties.” In section 52 of the same volume, the author says: “The jurisdiction of appellate courts ... is conferred ordinarily by statute and made dependent upon certain prescribed acts or conditions. If these are wanting, the court obtains no jurisdiction, although there may have been a general appearance on the part of the appellee or appellant.”
The Supreme Court of the United States, in Kelsey
These citations support the proposition that where the jurisdiction of an appellate court is limited by law to appeals arising within fixed territorial limits, .such jurisdiction cannot be enlarged by consent of the parties so as to draw within it a ease arising outside such limits, even though it may be true that within such limits the court has jurisdiction of appeals involving the subject-matter of the same class. The rules applicable to courts of general, inherent jurisdiction, such as our circuit courts, do not apply in cases such as this.
The same conclusion must be reached if we regard the question as one to be determined by merely considering whether the Springfield court had jurisdiction of the subject-matter. Jurisdiction has been said to be “the power which a man hath to do justice in causes of complaint brought before him.” [17 Am. & Eng. Ency. Law, p. 1041, note 1.]
The subject-matter or cause of complaint presented to the Springfield court in this case was not personal injuries (the subject of complaint below) but it was the appeal. The cause of complaint, was the action of the trial court as shown by its rulings and its judgment as preserved in the record. Inasmuch as the Springfield court had no power to review the action of the circuit court of St. Louis, it had no jurisdiction of the subject-matter of the appeal.
In the case of Wood v. Bank of the State of Georgia, 1 Fla. 381, the Supreme Court of that State said : “The proper office of this court is not to repair mere omissions and irregularities of the parties or their counsel in the court below, but errors committed by the
The Supreme Court of Arkansas says: “The essential criterion of appellate jurisdiction is that it revises and corrects the proceeding’s in a cause already instituted, but does not create that cause. Marbury v. Madison, 1 Crunch 137.” [Ex parte Allis, 12 Ark. l. c. 106.] .
The Dunham case, supra, was decided December 17,1910. On the same day this court handed down a decision in the case of State ex rel. Furstenfeld v. Nixon, 133 S. W. 340, not officially reported, which case was substantially similar to the one at bar, denying’ the writ on the ground that the appearance of relator in the Springfield court was a waiver of the defective jurisdiction. This latter case was under submission at the same time with the Dunham Case and was argued and briefed mainly upon the same point, viz., the validity of the act authorizing the transfer of causes. The point discussed in the present opinion was not brought to the attention of the court in such a manner as to advise the court of its full import. We are now satisfied that the conclusion reached in the Furstenfeld Case was erroneous, and that decision is necessarily overruled.
We hold that the Springfield Court of Appeals had no jurisdiction of this case, and that its judgment herein is null and void. The writ of prohibition will, therefore, be awarded as prayed at cost of relator.