60 A.2d 381 | Pa. Super. Ct. | 1948
Argued April 13, 1948. Plaintiff brought an action in assumpsit before a Justice of the Peace and recovered a judgment against the defendant for $298. To get a lien against defendant's land, a transcript of the judgment was filed of record in the prothonotary's office on November 14, 1941. Plaintiff issued scire facias on October 14, 1946 to revive the lien of the judgment. Defendant, in his affidavit of defense to the writ, averred that the judgment is void and that its invalidity appears on the face of the transcript. The affidavit of defense in effect is a motion to strike off the judgment. The lower court entered judgment for plaintiff in the present proceeding, on a rule for judgment for want of a sufficient affidavit of defense to the sci. fa. The judgment will be reversed.
Where no appeal or certiorari has been taken from a judgment of a Justice of the Peace the defenses, on scire facias to revive in the common pleas, are specific *600
and few. Dowling v. McGregor,
In this case the transcript shows on its face that the judgment was entered by the Justice of the Peace against the defendant, on September 20, 1941. This date, as appears from the transcript, was one day before the defendant had any notice by service (albeit improper)1 of *601
the summons upon him. This in itself was a denial of due process, which invalidates the judgment. In discussing the principle that judicial process is indispensable to jurisdiction, it is well said in Spoturno v. Woods, (Del.)
The justice did not have the defendant before him by service of process or otherwise when the judgment was entered. The judgment therefore is void.
Reversed, and the judgment is stricken off.