Mann v. Hvammen

144 N.W. 130, 32 S.D. 596, 1913 S.D. LEXIS 270
CourtSouth Dakota Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 5, 1913
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 144 N.W. 130 (Mann v. Hvammen) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering South Dakota Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mann v. Hvammen, 144 N.W. 130, 32 S.D. 596, 1913 S.D. LEXIS 270 (S.D. 1913).

Opinions

WHITING, P. J.

[1] This action was started in the justice court. The summons issued and served was wholly insufficient to give such court jurisdiction over the person of the defendant, for the reason that such summons failed to- reveal the subject of the action and to disclose that the relief sought was one within the jurisdiction of a justice court. The defendant appeared specially in the justice court and moved such court to quash the summons and dismiss the action, basing such motion on the defects in such summons. The motion was denied; defendant elected to stand upon his motion; and judgment was entered in favor of the plaintiff.

[2] Defendant then appealed the cause to the circuit court, taking such appeal under section roí, J. C. Section 100, J. C., provides the method of appealing where the appellant seeks a “review” of the cause on questions of either law or fact or upon questions of both law and fact. Section xoi, J. C., provides for the taking of an appeal where the appellant seeks a new trial in the action. Under section 101, J. C., no review of the proceedings in justice court can be had; the trial in the circuit court being one entirely de novo*. After thus appealing to the circuit court and demanding therein a new trial, the defendant, when the cause was called for -trial in such circuit court, renewed the motion he had made in the justice court. This motion was overruled and defendant excepted to such ruling. The defendant then answered, and participated in the trial had, which trial resulted in a verdict and judgment for plaintiff. Defendant moved for a new trial, which motion was denied; and from such judgment and order denying a new trial defendant has- appealed to- this -court.

[3] The sole question for -our determination is whether or not the defendant by appealing to the circuit court, and, by such appeal, demanding a new trial therein — thus invoking the original jurisdiction of such court which was a court of general original [599]*599jurisdiction' — conferred upon such court jurisdiction over his person regardless of the fact that the justice court had no jurisdiction either over the person of 'the defendant or the subject of the action.

By affirming the rulings of the circuit court we shall reach a different conclusion than that reached by this court in Plunket v. Evans, 2 S. D. 434, 50 N. W. 961, though upon a record showing identically the same situation, as a reading of the opinion in Plunket v. Evans discloses that it was an action wherein the relief demanded — the subject of the action — was not within the jurisdiction of the justice of the peace; that, upon the appeal'to the district court, there was no review sought of the rulings of the justice upon questions of either law or fact or upon questions, of law and fact; that, as in the case at bar, the appellant, under the provisions of section 101, J. C., demanded “a new trial in the appellate court.” In-the Plunket Case, the court said: “The jurisdiction of the district court depended entirely upon the jurisdiction of -the justice court. * * * The jurisdiction of the district court acquired by virtue of the appeal was simply that of the justice court. The original jurisdiction of the district court is not involved or called into exercise.” Of the decisions cited in the Plunket Case, but one, that of Ball v. Biggam, 43 Kan. 327, 23 Pac. 565, contains any discussion of the question now before us, or gives any reason for the proposition therein announced. The language used in Ball v. Biggam is strikingly similar to that in the Plunket Case: “The jurisdiction of the district court is exclusively and wholly appellate. Its original jurisdiction is not invoked at all.”

[4] It will be thus -seen that the premise upon which the decision in the Plunket and Ball Cases were based was ithat, upon the appeals from the justice courts, the original jurisdiction of the-appellate courts was not invoked. If, in the Plunket Case, the party appealing to the circuit court had merely sought therein a review of questions of law or fact, or of law and fact — in other words, if he had invoked solely the appellate jurisdiction of the circuit court — then the premise announced by, and the conclusion thereon rendered by, this court in that case would have been correct; and if it is a fact that, upon an appeal under section 101, supra, the original jurisdiction of the circuit court is not in[600]*600voiced, and the jurisdiction invoked is one “exclusively and wholly appellate,” then the conclusion reached in the Plunket Case was correct when applied to the facts in that case and we should reverse the judgment now before us; as certainly a court, when simply called upon to review the action of an inferior court and not to exercise any of its original jurisdiction, is limited, in the subject of its jurisdiction, by that possessed, in that particular case, by the court whose rulings it is reviewing, and it can only affirm or reverse the decision of the inferior court. But is it true that, when one appeals from the justice court and, instead of seeking a review of the rulings of the justice upon questions of either law or fact, demands a new trial in the circuit court, he does not invoke the original jurisdiction of the circuit court? He most certainly does invoke such original jurisdiction. This distinction between the purely appellate and the original jurisdictions of the circuit court was undoubtedly not clearly called to the attention of this court in the Plunket Case. The question now before us was virtually decided in Bank of Worthington v. Sanderson, 24 S. D. 443, 123 N. W. 873, as it was only upon the theory that the original jurisdiction of the circuit 'court had been invoked that the decision in that case, or in any of the numerous cases cited therein, rested.

This question is most exhaustively treated in the case of In re Burnette, 73 Kan. 609, 85 Pac. 575, cited in the Sanderson Case. It will be noted that this is a much later decision than that of Ball v. Biggam, decided by the same court and cited in Plunket v. Evans. In the Burnette Case the court said: “The jurisdiction to consider and decide causes de novo is in its essence original. The manner in which a case reaches the higher court is not the test. Jurisdiction being the power to hear and determine, the nature of the functions to be exercised controls, whether they are brought into activity by primary process or by removal from an inferior tribunal. Upon a trial de novo the power of an appellate court in dealing with the pleadings and the evidence, in the application of the law, and in the rendition of judgment according to the right of the case, all independent of the action of the lower court, is no different from what it would be if the case were begun there originally, and hence is not appellate within the meaning of laws creating jurisdiction.” This distinction between [601]*601the invoking of appellate jurisdiction and the invoking of original jurisdiction is drawn in the following cases: St. Louis County v. Sparks, 11 Mo. 201; Lacy v. Williams, 27 Mo. 281; Ex parte Henderson, 6 Fla. 279; and State ex rel. v. Baker, 19 Fla. 19.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Nomland Motor Company v. Alger
39 N.W.2d 899 (North Dakota Supreme Court, 1949)
Board of County Com'rs v. Althen
39 N.W.2d 520 (South Dakota Supreme Court, 1949)
Bachelor v. Vanderbos
244 N.W. 532 (South Dakota Supreme Court, 1932)
City of Enderlin v. Pontiac Township
242 N.W. 117 (North Dakota Supreme Court, 1932)
City of Sioux Falls v. Wearham
190 N.W. 1019 (South Dakota Supreme Court, 1922)
Larson v. Baysore
176 N.W. 515 (South Dakota Supreme Court, 1920)
Scott v. Hantz
153 N.W. 894 (South Dakota Supreme Court, 1915)
Quinn v. Conklin
146 N.W. 587 (South Dakota Supreme Court, 1914)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
144 N.W. 130, 32 S.D. 596, 1913 S.D. LEXIS 270, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mann-v-hvammen-sd-1913.