Gordon v. Koby

100 N.E.2d 78, 88 Ohio App. 303, 45 Ohio Op. 73, 1949 Ohio App. LEXIS 576
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedNovember 12, 1949
Docket320
StatusPublished

This text of 100 N.E.2d 78 (Gordon v. Koby) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gordon v. Koby, 100 N.E.2d 78, 88 Ohio App. 303, 45 Ohio Op. 73, 1949 Ohio App. LEXIS 576 (Ohio Ct. App. 1949).

Opinion

Per Curiam.

This is an appeal on questions of law from a judgment of the Municipal Court of Fostoria.

The action is one in forcible entry and detainer, m which the appellees, LaManda Gordon, Charles Reisz and Laura Dreitzler, were plaintiffs and the appellant, Phillip Koby, was defendant.

Upon the trial of the cause in the Municipal Court, the court rendered judgment that a writ of restitution issue to the bailiff, commanding him to restore pos *304 session of the premises described in the petition to plaintiffs, and for costs.

That is the judgment from which this appeal is taken.

The case is submitted to the court upon the trap-script of the docket and journal entries of the Municipal Court and the original papers filed in the Municipal Court.

No bill of exceptions of the proceedings had in the Municipal Court has been filed herein.

The defendant assigns error in the following particulars :

1. Overruling the defendant’s demurrer to the petition without hearing or notice.

2. Refusing to permit the defendant to try the cause to a jury although demand was made on the day of the hearing.

3. Overruling the defendant’s motion for a new trial.

These claimed errors will be considered in the order mentioned.

1. The demurrer referred to in this assignment of error, omitting caption and signature, is in the following words, to wit:

“Comes now the defendant and demurs to the petition of the plaintiffs filed herein, for the reason that the issues have already been determined and are res judicata.”

Res judicata is a defense to an action, and being a defense must be pleaded as such and cannot be raised by demurrer unless facts establishing it are pleaded in the petition. Furthermore, under the express provisions of Section 10450, General Code, a judgment in an action in forcible entry and detainer is not res judicata of a later action brought by either party to the judgment.

The order of the Municipal Court overruling the de *305 murrer. was the only order that could properly be made in the premises, and the fact that such order was made without hearing or notice could not in any way be prejudicial to the defendant.

This assignment of error is therefore without merit.

2. The Municipal Court of Fostoria was created and its jurisdiction and procedure prescribed by an act of the Legislature of Ohio, the sections of which .are now designated Sections 1579-1397 to 1579-1447, inclusive, General Code. '

Section 1579-1397, General Code, prescribes that the court is created as a court’of record in and for the city of Fostoria in Seneca and Hancock counties, the townships of Louden and Jackson in Seneca county, the township of Washington in Hancock county and the township of Perry in Wood county.

Section 1579-1403, General Code, among other things, provides:

“The Municipal Court herein established shall have original civil jurisdiction within the limits, of said city of Fostoria, and the townships of Jackson and Louden in Seneca county, Washington in Hancock county and Perry in Wood county, in the following cases:

“1. All actions and proceedings in which justices of the peace or such courts as may succeed justice of peace courts now have or may hereafter be given jurisdiction.”

Section 1579-1404, General Code, among other things, provides:

“The Municipal Court shall have civil jurisdiction within the limits of Seneca county, Hancock county and Wood county, Ohio, respectively:

< Í * * *

“6. In all actions of whatever nature or remedy wherein justice of the peace courts now or may hereafter have jurisdiction.”

*306 Section 1579-1415, General Code, among, other things, provides:

“All causes in the, Municipal Court, both civil and criminal, shall be tried to the court, unless a jury be demanded in writing by a party entitled to the same. The demand for a jury trial in civil cases must be made in writing not later than two weeks from the return date stated in the summons and not less than three days before the trial of the case.”,

Sections 10447 to 10461, inclusive, General Code, enacted long'prior to the sections above mentioned, conferred jurisdiction on justices of the peace of actions for forcible entry and detainer and prescribed their procedure in such cases. Section 10457, General Code, provides that a jury may be demanded by either party, but does not prescribe any particular time for the making of such demand.

The provisions of Sections 10447 to 10461, inclusive, General Code, having been enacted prior to the enactment of Sections 1579-1397 to 1579-1447, inclusive, General Code, relating to the creation and procedure of the Municipal Court of Fostoria, are limited and to some extent superseded by the provisions of the latter sections. Morse, Marshal, v. State, ex rel. Empire Petroleum Co., 41 Ohio App., 265, 268, 269, 180 N. E., 906.

The provisions of Section 1579-1415, General Code, relating to jury trials in the Municipal Court, specifically apply to all actions of which the Municipal Court has jurisdiction, and, although actions in forcible entry and detainer are not specifically mentioned in the sections of the General Code creating such court and defining its jurisdiction and procedure, the jurisdiction conferred on the court by the provisions of Sections 1579-1397 to 1579-1447, inclusive, General Code, comprehends jurisdiction of such cases; and the pro *307 visions of Section 1579-1415, General Code, relating to jury trials in the Municipal Court apply, to the exclusion of the provisions of Section 10457, General Code.

The case of Harbine, Jr., v. Davis, 41 Ohio Law Abs., 65, 57 N. E. (2d), 421, relied on by the defendant as determining that the provisions of Section 10457, General Code, relating to jurisdiction in actions of forcible en-' try and detainer before justices of the peace, apply to juries in cases of forcible entry and detainer in the Municipal Court of Fostoria, has no application to the facts of the instant ease.

The case relied upon involved the act creating the Municipal Court of Dayton. In the act there was no express provision, as there is in the act creating the Municipal Court of Fostoria, as to jury trials, and the court held merely that, in the absence of such express provision, the provisions of Section 10457, General Code, applied to jury trials in such actions in the Municipal Court of Dayton.

Neither does the case of Williams v. Gordon, 53 Ohio Law Abs., 464, 86 N. E.

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Related

MORSE v. STATE Ex EMPIRE PETROLEUM CO
180 N.E. 906 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 1931)
Harbine v. Davis
57 N.E.2d 421 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 1944)
Williams v. Gordon
86 N.E.2d 34 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 1949)

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Bluebook (online)
100 N.E.2d 78, 88 Ohio App. 303, 45 Ohio Op. 73, 1949 Ohio App. LEXIS 576, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gordon-v-koby-ohioctapp-1949.