Collins v. Parker

63 Ohio St. (N.S.) 16
CourtOhio Supreme Court
DecidedMay 22, 1900
StatusPublished

This text of 63 Ohio St. (N.S.) 16 (Collins v. Parker) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Collins v. Parker, 63 Ohio St. (N.S.) 16 (Ohio 1900).

Opinion

Burket, J.

The parts of the statutes applicable to the question of jurisdiction of the justice of the peace in this case are as follows:

Section 5S5. “Under the restrictions and limitations herein provided, justices of the peace shall have exclusive original jurisdiction of any sum not exceeding one hundred dollars.”
Section 583. “Justices of the peace within and coextensive with their respective counties shall have jurisdiction and authority. * * *
“9. To proceed against constables failing to make return, making false return, or failing to pay over money collected on execution issued by such justice. * * *
“12. To try actions against other justices of the peace for refusing or neglecting to pay over .moneys collected in their official capacity, where the amount claimed does not exceed one hundred dollars; but nothing in this clause shall be held to deny or impair [18]*18any remedy provided by law in such case by suit on the official bond of such justice of the peace, or by amercement or otherwise, for such neglect or failure to pay over money collected as aforesaid.”

Sec. 591. “Justices shall not have cognizance of any action:

1. To recover damages for an assault, or assault, and battery; or,
2. In an action for malicious prosecution; or,
3. In actions against justices of the peace or other officers, for misconduct in office, except in the cases provided for in this chapter.”

While the proceeding against constables for failing to make return, making false return, or failing to pay over money collected on execution issued by such justice, and actions against other justices of the peace for refusing or neglecting to pay over money collected in their official capacity, are not designated in these-statutes as “misconduct in office,” they are the only cases to which the exception in part three of section 591 can apply, and therefore they must be held and regarded as the “misconduct in office” covered by the exception, and as to which a justice of the peace has jurisdiction. Other misconduct in office is withdrawn from the jurisdiction of the justice of the peace.

It is altogether clear that before the addition of subdivision 12, to section 583, 70 O. L., 79, a justice of the peace had no jurisdiction against another justice for refusing or neglecting to pay over money collected in his official capacity. This is conceded by counsel for plaintiff in error, in the brief filed in this case.

The jurisdiction of justices of the peace was by subdivision 12 of section 583, extended only to actions, against other justices of the peace for refusing or neglecting to pay over money collected in their official ca[19]*19pacity, and to no other hind of action, and to no other kind of misconduct in office. While the amendment to the statute extended the jurisdiction, it at the same time, limited that extension. The jurisdiction conferred is not general to all forms of action growing out of failing or neglecting to pay over money collected in his official capacity, but is special and confined to the words of the statute, that is to try actions against other justices of the peace, not against other justices and their bondsmen; to try actions against other justices for refusing or neglecting to pay over money collected in their official capacity, not to enforce the obligation of an official bond against them and their sureties, nor to collect money by amercement, which they have refused or neglected to pay over. The only action which this amendment authorizes is an action against the justice of the peace individually for the money which he has collected in his official capacity and refused or neglected to pay over.

The action before the justice of the peace in the. case at bar was not of that character. It was an action against the justice and his two bondsmen jointly on his official bond, and was not within the letter or scope of the statute. It was not within the “misconduct in office” covered by the exception in subdivision three of section 591, and was therefore included within the “misconduct in office” of which a justice of the peace by the terms of that section has no jurisdiction.

Where a justice of the peace has collected money in his official capacity, not exceeding one hundred dollars, and refused or neglected to pay it over, the party entitled thereto may bring his action against such justice individually before another justice of the peace; or he may proceed by amercement against such [20]*20justice .individually in the probate court; or he may bring an action against such justice and his bondsmen on his official bond in the court of common pleas, and there may perhaps be other remedies, but not the remedy of bringing an action on the official bond against him and his sureties before another justice of the peace.

The jurisdiction of a justice of the peace in actions on the official bond of another justice of the peace being taken away by said section 591, and not restored by section 583, even though the amount is less than one hundred dollars, it follows that jurisdiction is conferred in such cases upon the court of common pleas by section 456, Revised Statutes, which provides: “The court of common pleas shall have original jurisdiction in all civil cases where the sum or matter in dispute exceeds the exclusive original jurisdiction of justices of the peace.” In actions on official bonds for less than one hundred dollars it is not the sum but the matter in dispute that exceeds the exclusive original jurisdiction of justices of the peace; just as in actions for assault, assault and battery, malicious prosecution, libel or slander, for sums not exceeding one hundred dollars, it is no.t the sum but the matter in dispute, that exceeds the exclusive original jurisdiction of justices of the peace. In all cases where the sum or matter in dispute exceeds the exclusive original jurisdiction of justices of the peace, the jurisdiction devolves upon the court of common pleas, or some other court. Ford v. Parker, 4 Ohio St., 576.

It is therefore clear that the justice of the peace had no jurisdiction of the subject matter in the case at bar, and that the circuit court was right in reversing the judgment.

[21]*21The same conclusion is reached by another course of reasoning.

The “misconduct in office” embraced in the exception in subdivision three of section 591, and for which actions may be prosecuted before a justice of the peace, are those cases provided'for in the 9 th and 12th subdivisions of section 583, viz.: proceedings against a constable for “failing to make return, making false return, or failing to pay over money collected on execution issued by such justice,” and “actions against other justices of the peace for refusing or neglecting to pay over moneys collected in their official capacity.” For the above named misconduct in office a justice of the peace has jurisdiction to afford a remedy by action against such officer. If such remedy may consist, in any one of such cases, of an action upon the official bond of such officer, the same remedy may be invoked in all such cases; and if an action on the official bond of such officer is not within the jurisdiction of a justice of the peace, as a remedy for such misconduct in office, in any one of said cases, then he has jurisdiction in none of said cases.

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Bluebook (online)
63 Ohio St. (N.S.) 16, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/collins-v-parker-ohio-1900.