30 N.C. 487 | N.C. | 1848
The defendant was charged in Buncombe County with being the father of a bastard child, and was bound over to the County Court. He appeared and moved to be discharged upon the ground that the court had no jurisdiction of the case. But the court referred the motion, and made an order that the defendant should at certain stated days pay certain sums for the maintenance of the child, and also enter into bond in $200 with sufficient sureties for the performing of the orders of the court in the premises, and to indemnify the county against any charges for the maintenance of the bastard, from which the defendant appealed.
On motion of the solicitor of the State, the Superior Court dismissed the appeal and awarded a procedendo to County Court to carry into effect the orders of that court, from which the defendant again appealed to this Court.
The question arises upon Laws 1844, ch. 12. It enacts that it shall not be lawful for the Courts of Pleas and Quarter Sessions for Buncombe, and other enumerated counties, to try any causes where a jury may be necessary, (488) nor to summon a jury to attend the courts. It further provides that all suits in those counties, whether civil or *356
criminal, shall originate in the Superior Courts, and all appeals from justices of the peace in civil cases and all recognizances by them taken in criminal cases shall be returned to the Superior Court; and that when a will is brought into the County Court for probate and is contested, a transcript of the proceedings, together with the original will shall be sent to the Superior Court and the issue to be tried there; and that a certificate of the decisions and the will shall be remitted to the County Court and there recorded as evidence of the probate of the will or its rejection. A similar provision is made as to caveats of entries of land. Taking the act of 1844 in connection with the general laws regulating the local police, as administered in the county courts, and particularly with the bastardy act, it seems to the Court that, in the state in which this case was in the County Court, the jurisdiction of that court over it is not ousted. By the general act, Rev. St., ch. 12, the County Court is the tribunal to make the orders for the allowances necessary for the maintenance of a bastard child, and taking bond and security for the performance of the orders and indemnifying the county from charge therefor. It is true, an issue is allowed to the person charged, and an appeal is given to either side. But it has been the uniform course in cases of that kind, as in those of contested wills and road cases, after a decision in the Superior Court, to remit the cause with a certificate of the decision and directions to the County Court to carry it into effect. That is obviously the more convenient and proper method of proceeding in all those cases, and in construing the act of 1844 it must be assumed that this course was understood by (489) the Legislature. These observations being premised, it seems to follow that the jurisdiction of a bastardy case remains exclusively in the county courts mentioned in that act, until the party charged deny that he is the father and an issue be made up whether he be or not. In the first place, it is to be remarked that when cases are to go immediately to the Superior Court the provision is made in explicit terms; and that this case does not fall within the words which transfer the jurisdiction to the Superior Courts. It is not an appeal from a justice of the peace, nor is it a civil suit that can originate in the Superior Court, nor, as was stated in S. v. Carson,
Judgment affirmed; and this will be certified to the Superior Court, that a procedendo may issue thence to the County Court.
PER CURIAM. Ordered accordingly.
Cited: Fox v. Wood,
(492)