Ware v. Shoemaker-Bale Auto Co.

6 S.W.2d 285, 177 Ark. 227, 1928 Ark. LEXIS 89
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedMay 14, 1928
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 6 S.W.2d 285 (Ware v. Shoemaker-Bale Auto Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ware v. Shoemaker-Bale Auto Co., 6 S.W.2d 285, 177 Ark. 227, 1928 Ark. LEXIS 89 (Ark. 1928).

Opinion

Wood, J.

This is an action in replevin begun by the plaintiff in the justice of peace court to recover two tractors and a touring car. The property was described in the affidavit, and the total value placed at $277. The value of each separate article was not stated. The plaintiff executed bond required for order of delivery. The property was taken by the sheriff. The defendant did not execute any retaining bond, and the property was delivered to the plaintiff.

The day the cause was set for hearing in the justice court the defendant demurred to the affidavit in replevin, on the ground that the value of each article was not stated. The defendant moved that the affidavit be dismissed and that he be given judgment for the property or its value in the sum of $350 as damages for the wrongful taking. The plaintiff asked and was granted leave to amend its complaint, and did amend same by stating the value of each article of property, but the total value was still shown in the complaint as amended to be $277. The court heard evidence upon the issue of the right to the property and its value, and thereupon found that the property was of the value of $350, and entered an order directing the plaintiff to restore the property or its value to the defendant.

The attorney for the defendant moved to dismiss the cause because the value of the property taken was in excess of $300, hut asked the court 'to retain the issue as to damages for the wrongful taking. The court retained this issue, and sent the same to the jury. The jury returned a verdict in favor of the defendant for damages in the sum of $192. The justice court thereupon rendered judgment in favor of the defendant against the plaintiff and its bondsmen for that sum, from which the plaintiff duly appealed to the circuit court. When the cause was reached for trial in the circuit court, the parties, by consent, submitted the cause to the court sitting as a jury. The defendant moved to quash the order of delivery, and offered to show that he was damaged by the wrongful taking and withholding of his property. The court overruled his motion to quash the order of delivery, to which ruling the defendant duly excepted.

It appears that there were two trials in the circuit court. On the first trial the court found that the plaintiff was entitled to recover the property, but afterwards set aside this judgment and granted the defendant a new trial. On the second trial the cause was again, by com sent, submitted to the court sitting as a jury,' and the court found from the evidence that the property in controversy was in excess of $300 in value and therefore beyond the jurisdiction of the justice, and that the circuit court had no jurisdiction, and entered a judgment dismissing the cause for all purposes. From that judgment is this appeal.

The cause is ruled on the question of jurisdiction by the case of Kaufman v. Kelley, 78 Ark. 176, 95 S. W. 448, where we said:

“The Constitution of this State provides that justices of the peace shall have concurrent jurisdiction in suits for the recovery of personal property where the value of the property does not exceed the sum of $300. Art. 7, § 40. The value which determines the jurisdiction is the real value, and not the alleged value, of the property. That having been shown in this case to exceed $300, the justice of the peace had no jurisdiction, and the circuit court acquired none By appeal. The motion should have been sustained. Davenport v. Burke, 91 Mass. 116, and cases cited; Sackett v. Kellogg, 2 Cush. 91; Corbell v. Childers, 17 Ore. 528 (21 Pac. 670); Vogel v. People, 37 Ill. App. 388; Darling v. Conklin, 42 Wis. 478; Chilson v. Jennison, 60 Mich. 235, 26 N. W. 859; Sandford v. Scott, 3 Conn. 244; Small v. Swain, 1 Mo. 133.”

■ In that case, as in the case at bar, the defendant moved to dismiss for want of jurisdiction. 'But the instant case differs from the above case in that the appellant insists that the trial court, upon ascertaining that the justice court, and therefore the circuit court, did not have jurisdiction to determine the rights of property, should nevertheless, under appellant’s pleadings and offered proof, have retained the causé for the purpose of quashing the wrongful order of delivery and have entered judgment for the defendant for a return of the property or its value according to the proof which appellant offered to produce. The appellant contends that he was entitled to this relief under § 8656 of C. & M. Digest, which reads as follows:

“Judgment against sureties in plaintiff’s bond. If, upon the trial of any such cause, judgment be given for the defendant in the action, the court or jury trying such cause may render judgment, not only against the plaintiff for the value of the property taken under the order of delivery in the case, provided the same has not been surrendered to the defendant, upon bond, as provided for in said § 8649, together with all damages sustained by the defendant in the action, but may, upon motion of the defendant, also render judgment against the sureties upon the bond of the plaintiff for the value of such property and all damages sustained by tbe defendant in the action. ’ ’

The above statute has no application to judgments rendered dismissing an action in replevin for want of jurisdiction. The aibove .statute contemplates that, where there has been a trial of the cause on the merits and judgment rendered in favor of the defendant, then the court, where the plaintiff is in possession of the property under his bond and order of delivery, and does not surrender same, may render judgment against plaintiff and his bondsmen for the value of the property and the damages sustained by the defendant in the action. But the statute has no application where, as in the case at bar, the action, on motion of the defendant, is dismissed for want of jurisdiction of the subject-matter of the action. This court has ruled in many cases that, “to maintain replevin for goods, the plaintiff must not only have title, general or special, in them, but must be entitled to immediate possession thereof. Section 8640, C. & M. Digest, subdiv. 3; Thatcher v. Franklin, 37 Ark. 64-66, and cases cited; Carpenter v. Glass, 67 Ark. 135-137, 53 S. W. 678; Hall v. Benton, 160 Ark. 254, 254 S. W. 530; Ellis v. Caruthers, 137 Ark. 134, 208 S. W. 425.

The right to recover damages for the wrongful taking of property necessarily turns upon the issue as to whether the plaintiff who took possession was the owner of such property and had, at the time of the taking, the right to such possession. It occurs to us that it would be anomalous and illogical, to say the least, to hold that, while the court had no jurisdiction to determine the issue of the right of property and the right of possession, it nevertheless did have jurisdiction to determine that the defendant was wrongfully deprived of the possession of the property and the damages sustained by him because of such deprivation. The statute relied upon by the appellant certainly does not contemplate that the court, not having jurisdiction to try the issue of the right of property and the right of possession, would nevertheless have jurisdiction to try the issue of damages necessarily subsidiary to, and growing out of, the issue of ownership and right to possession.

To sustain his contention, counsel for appellant cites the case of Parker v. Bradford, 68 Minn. 437, 71 N. W.

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Bluebook (online)
6 S.W.2d 285, 177 Ark. 227, 1928 Ark. LEXIS 89, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ware-v-shoemaker-bale-auto-co-ark-1928.