43 Mo. App. 571 | Mo. Ct. App. | 1891
The plaintiff is a foreign insurance company, and at the dates hereinafter mentioned was doing business in this state. On January 11, 1889, defendant Reisinger brought suit against the plaintiff insurance company, before a justice of the peace at Kansas City. A summons was issued by the justice and sent to St. Louis, and there served on the superintendent of the insurance department of the state of Missouri. Defendant in that suit (plaintiff in this) failing to appear before the Jackson county justice, judgment by default was entered, execution was issued, and plaintiff brought this suit asking that proceedings on the justice’s judgment be enjoined, and that said judgment be declared null and void, etc. The circuit court gave judgment in defendant’s favor and dismissed the suit, whereupon plaintiff appealed to this court.
I. The question is one of jurisdiction, whether or not, under the law as it existed when the action was brought before the justice, a suit could be commenced before a justice of the peace against a foreign insurance company, summons issued to, and served.in, another county wherein the superintendent of the insurance department may reside. Or, as applied to this controversy, did the Jackson county justice have, any legal
And, further, “every action, cognizable before a justice of the peace, shall be brought before some justice of the township, either, first, where the defendants, or one of them, resides, or in any adjoining township ; or, second, where the plaintiff resides and the defendants, or one of them, may be found ; third, if the defendant-is a non-resident of the county in which the plaintiff resides, the action may be brought before some j usticeof any township in such county where the defendant may be found; fourth, if the defendant in any action is-a non-resident of the state * * * the action may be-brought before any justice in any county in this state wherein the defendant may be found.” This section is-followed by some other provisions relating to attachment suits, etc., and the articles pertaining to jurisdiction of justices of the peace then closes with section 2843, to this effect: “ N othing contained in this chapter shall be so construed as to give justices of the peace or constables jurisdiction outside of their respective counties.” The sections, too, of the articles following the-foregoing, relating to summons, how issued and by whom to be served, as well as the form of the same, all show how carefully the jurisdiction of the justice is limited to his county. R. S. 1879, secs. 2858-2860. Manifestly then, under the general provisions of the statute-defining the jurisdiction of justices of the peace, such jurisdiction is confined to the county wherein the justice-may have been elected or appointed, and no justice is empowered to issue summons to be served in another county.
From the foregoing considerations, then, we conclude that the judgment of the Jackson county justice in the case of Reisinger v. United States Mutual Accident Association was rendered without jurisdiction and was void. And it is well settled that injunction will lie to restrain the execution of such void judgment. Bornschein v. Finck, 13 Mo. App. 120.
The judgment, therefore, of the circuit court will be reversed and the cause remanded to be proceeded with according to this opinion.