Mills v. Churchwell Motor Co.

122 So. 773, 154 Miss. 631, 1929 Miss. LEXIS 175
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedJune 10, 1929
DocketNo. 27887.
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 122 So. 773 (Mills v. Churchwell Motor Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mills v. Churchwell Motor Co., 122 So. 773, 154 Miss. 631, 1929 Miss. LEXIS 175 (Mich. 1929).

Opinion

*634 Cook, J.,

’delivered the opinion of the court.

On July 9, 1926, the appellee Churchwell Motor Company filed this suit in a justice of' the peace court of Greene county, against J. H. Whatley, E. Mills, and Mary Davis, on a promissory note for seventy-five dollars, signed by the defendants, and in which it was recited as follows: ‘ ‘ The consideration of this note is the conditional sale and delivery to me of a Ford ton truck #8,725,326 and the express condition of such sale and delivery is that the title and ownership thereof is and shall remain in said Churchwell Motor Co. until said note and interest are paid in full,” etc.

Thereafter, a judgment hy default was entered against the defendants in favor of the Churchwell Motor Company as plaintiff. This judgment was duly enrolled in the office of the clerk of the circuit court, and thereafter, on the 15th day of October, 1927, the circuit clerk issued an execution on this enrolled judgment, which the record shows was returnable on the 24th day of December, 1927. On the 9th day of December, 1927, the sheriff levied this execution on a Ford truck found in the possession of Elias Mills, and made the following return on the execution: “I have this day executed the within writ hy levying on one Ford truck found in the possession of Elias Mills valued at one hundred fifty dollars, a claimant’s issue having been interposed by T. W. Mills and bond furnished by him for said truck I delivered the said truck to the said claimant and returned the said bond with this execution. This the 9th day of December, 1927.”

The appellant Tom Mills filed an affidavit, claiming to he the owner of the Ford truck levied upon, and upon the execution of the bond required hy law, the property was delivered to him. The forthcoming bond executed hy the claimant on the 9th day of December, 1927, recited that the truck surrendered to him had been levied on under and by virtue of an execution issued on the 1st *635 day of November, 1927, and returnable on the 24th day of December, 1927, and on December 24, 1927, a default judgment was entered ag’ainst the claimant, and the sureties upon the bond executed by him, ordering the return of the truck to the sheriff, or, in default thereof, the payment to the Churchwell Motor Company of one hundred fifty dollars, the value of the truck as shown by the officer’s return on the execution. This default judgment contained the following recital: “This cause this day came on for hearing upon the claimant’s issue filed by Tom Mills in said cause and the-plaintiff being present and having moved the court to cause an issue to be made up and a day fixed for the hearing and the court at the last term of this court having fixed this 24th day of December as the time of hearing this issue and having notified the claimant of said fact and isjsue being this day tendered claimant by the plaintiff and the said Tom Mills the claimant having failed to appear and join issue, ’ ’ etc.

After the time for an appeal from this judgment on the claimant’s issue had expired, the claimant filed a petition for certiorari, attacking the validity of the judgment on the following grounds:

“1st: That no alternative judgment could be entered against the said Tom Mills and the sureties on his bond for more than the amount of the judgment and costs.
“2nd: That under section 4999 of the .Code of 1906 of the State of Mississippi the time for the hearing was not fixed and notice given as provided for by said section.
“3rd: That the original judgment recovered by Church-well Motor Company against J. H. Whatley, E. Mills and Mary Davis is void, because, it does not set out whether the Churchwell Motor Company is a partnership, or a corporation and no valid execution or valid levy can be made under a void judgment.
“4th: Levy void because made after return day of execution. ’ ’

*636 Upon this petition a writ of certiorari, was issued, and in response thereto the record of the proceedings in the justice court was filed in the circuit court. Upon the hearing of the cause in the circuit court, the claimant offered evidence tending to prove that the return day named in the execution which was sent up as a part of the record by the justice' of the peace, and upon which the sheriff’s return appeared, had been changed by the sheriff; and that the execution had, in fact, been levied after the return day named therein when originally issued by the circuit clerk.

The plaintiff also offered testimony tending to show that he did not have notice of the date fixed for the hearing of the claimant’s issue in the justice of the peace court. On the conclusion of this hearing’;, the court entered a judgment reversing the judgment of the justice of the peace, for the reason that it awarded the ■plaintiff a recovery against the claimant and the Sureties on his bond in the sum of one hundred fifty dollars, the value of the truck, instead of the sum of eighty-eight dollars ,and ninety-one cents the amount of the original judgment, with interest and costs. And the court thereupon entered a judgment reciting that the plaintiff in execution, the Ohurchwell Motor Company, “appears to be a firm composed of E. A. Ohurchwell doing business in .the name of the Ohurchwell Motor Company,” and ordering that the said Ohurchwell Motor Company recover from the claimant and his sureties on his forthcoming bond, the truck in question; or, in default thereof, that it recover from the claimant and his sureties the sum of eighty-eigfit dollars and ninety-one cents, with six per cent interest and all costs, and “ten per cent damages on said sum as retribution given and awarded in such matters.” From the judgment so entered in the circuit court this appeal was prosecuted.

Section 90, Code of 1906, section 72, Hemingway’s 1927 Code, provides that in all cases tried by a justice of the *637 peace, and removed to the circuit court by certiorari, the court shall be confined to the examination of questions of law arising or appearing on the face of the record and proceedings; and that in case of an affirmance of the judgment of the justice, the same judgment shall be given as on appeal; but in case of a reversal, the circuit court shall enter such judgment as the justice ought to have entered if the same be apparent from the record; and, if not, then the circuit court may try the cause anew on its merits, and enter judgment on the certiorari or appeal bond in proper cases.

It will thus be noted that under the provisions of this statute the court below was confined to an examination of questions of law arising or appearing on the face of the record and proceedings of1 the justice court, and therefore the evidence offered to vary and contradict the record, and to show that the appellant had no notice of the date of the hearing of the claimant’s issue, was inadmissible in this proceeding. The record before the circuit court, and now before us, shows the issuance and levy of an execution dated October 15, 1927, and returnable December 24, 1927.

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122 So. 773, 154 Miss. 631, 1929 Miss. LEXIS 175, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mills-v-churchwell-motor-co-miss-1929.