DocketNumber: 9511
Judges: Fox
Filed Date: 9/28/1943
Status: Precedential
Modified Date: 10/19/2024
This is an original jurisdiction proceeding in prohibition, on the part of United States Coal and Coke Company, hereinafter called "petitioner", against H. B. Kitts, a Justice of the Peace of Mercer County, West Virginia, and George H. Carroll, trading and doing business in the name of Carroll Motor Sales, hereinafter referred to as "respondents".
On January 12, 1937, Carroll, in the name of Carroll Motor Sales, recovered a judgment for $50.50 and $10.50 costs, against one E. P. Terry, before respondent, H. B. Kitts, justice of Mercer County. On March 4, 1943, the said justice issued a suggestee execution, under the provisions of Chapter
On these allegations, not denied, the petitioner seeks a writ of prohibition against respondents, prohibiting them "from proceeding further upon said suggestee execution, and from proceeding further in said civil action insofar as any proceedings therein relate to your petitioner, and from taking any action to enforce the said suggestee execution and from seeking otherwise to proceed against, or levy upon, any credits or sums of money that have been, or may become, due from this petitioner to the said E. P. Terry, and that the said suggestee execution and the service thereof be held irregular and void and of no effect whatsoever". On June 5, 1943, we awarded a rule requiring respondents to show cause why the writ prayed for should not issue. To this rule there has been no appearance on the part of the respondents, or either of them.
The position of the petitioner, as stated in its petition, is that the suggestee execution, issued as aforesaid, is void for the following reasons:
*Page 16"(a) That a Justice of the Jeace has no jurisdiction to issue any writ, including a suggestee execution, operative beyond the geographical boundary of his County, and the said H. B. Kitts accordingly had no jurisdiction to issue a suggestee execution operative beyond the bounds of Mercer County.
"(b) A Justice of the Peace has no jurisdiction to cause the service of any writ issued by him to be served beyond the geographical bounds of his County.
"(c) This petitioner, being a corporation as aforesaid, and having its principal place of business and chief works in McDowell County, West Virginia, and having no officer, stockholder, member of its board of directors, or agent in Mercer County, was beyond the jurisdiction of the said H. B. Kitts as a Justice of the Peace of Mercer County.
"(d) No Court or Justice of the Peace of Mercer County, West Virginia, would have had jurisdiction of an action by the said E. P. Terry to recover any sums of money due him from this petitioner, but such action would have been solely within the jurisdiction of McDowell County, and in which County any cause of action between them, with respect of wages and salary, would have arisen, and, accordingly, the said H. B. Kitts, as Justice of the Peace of Mercer County, has no jurisdiction to issue said suggestee execution so far as this petitioner is concerned".
These contentions, and each of them, must be sustained. Our Constitution, Section 28 of Article VIII provides:
"The civil jurisdiction of a justice of the peace shall extend to actions of assumpsit, debt, detinue and trover, if the amount claimed, exclusive of interest, does not exceed three hundred dollars. The jurisdiction of justices of the peace shall extend throughout their county; * * *. And the Legislature may give to justices such additional civil jurisdiction and powers within their respective counties as may be deemed expedient, under such regulations and restrictions as may be prescribed by general law, except that in suits to recover money or damages, their jurisdiction and powers shall in no case exceed three hundred dollars. * * *."
The plain intent and meaning of this provision was to limit the jurisdiction of justices to the counties in which they were elected and hold office, and the power conferred upon the legislature to give them additional civil jurisdiction is expressly limited to their respective counties. Therefore, the legislature has no power to extend such jurisdiction beyond the limits of the county in which the justice was elected, and has not, in our opinion, attempted to do so. On the contrary, it has restricted such jurisdiction in accordance with the constitutional limitation when by statute, Code
"A justice is without jurisdiction in an action brought by him against a defendant who is a resident of this state, but not of the county in which the action is brought, the cause of action having arisen in the county of defendant's residence.",
followed by a holding that the justice being without jurisdiction his judgment in the principal action, as well as that upon the attachment and garnishment, was void.
The next case was that of Bank of Gassaway v. Stalnaker,
*Page 19"Can a justice summon one as garnishee from another county than that of the justice, and, upon his default to appear and answer, render a valid judgment against him in favor of the judgment creditor? This question alone is presented by the writ of error.
"We answer the question in the negative. Such a judgment is totally void for want of jurisdiction. A justice has no civil jurisdiction beyond the limits of his county. To that territory his powers are confined by the Constitution itself. Art. 8, section 28. It says that 'the jurisdiction of justices of the peace shall extend throughout their county.' It grants no power that will enable a justice of the peace to render such a judgment as the one under consideration; but, after defining some powers, it further says that 'the Legislature may give to justices such additional civil jurisdiction and powers within their respective counties as may be deemed expedient.' Mark the two phrases in these constitutional provisions: 'throughout their county', and 'within their respective counties'. Here by constitutional law we have territorial limits fixed for the exercise of a justice's powers. The first phrase allows the jurisdiction to extend to the confines of the county; the second binds the lawmakers to restrain their further grant of powers within such limits. Pretty plain and specific is all this. Nowhere does the constitution justify civil action on the part of a justice beyond the county lines. Quite plainly does it forbid the extension of power in civil matters beyond those limits, even though that extension be by the sanction of the Legislature itself."
The case at bar differs from Bank of Gassaway v. Stalnaker in the following particulars: Here the summons was directed to "__________, or any Constable of said [Mercer] County", instead of to some person or official outside of Mercer County; and the service was had on the Auditor of the State of West Virginia instead of the corporation sought to be made liable. But the basic question is the same. If a justice is without power to make his processes effective outside of his own county, it matters not as to the form of the process, to whom it may be directed, or where and on whom it is executed. The provisions of our statute which authorize service on or acceptance of process on corporations by the auditor do not affect or extend the jurisdiction of courts; and in the instant case, the service on the auditor could not have been anything more than a service in McDowell County, where a process issued by a justice of the peace of Mercer County was of no force whatever.Sovereign Coal Co. v. Britton,
The question of the jurisdiction of a justice of the peace has been further considered by this Court in Gridelli v.Norfolk Western Ry. Co.,
These cases, we think, are conclusive of the question here raised. The processes of a justice of the peace in a civil action, in themselves, have no force outside of the county in which he was elected and holds his office. When a justice obtains jursdiction, his judgment, as distinguished from his processes, may be made effective throughout the State; but only through the aid of some court whose processes extend throughout the State.
Petitioner makes the further point that the suggestee execution is void on its face, because not directed to any named officer of Mercer County, and relies on Section 5, Chapter
The writ will be awarded, but will be limited to the pending suggestee execution proceeding. The prayer of the petition which is, in part, that further proceedings in the civil action in so far as any proceedings therein relate to petitioner be prohibited, if granted, might be construed to prevent further proceedings by the judgment creditor against the petitioner on the judgment recovered in Mercer County, although probably not intended to have that effect. The judgment creditor may wish to proceed *Page 21 further to collect his judgment and may, by proper proceedings, involve the petitioner, and we should do nothing to prevent such action on his part.
A writ of prohibition will be awarded against respondents prohibiting them from further proceeding upon the suggestee execution proceeding set up in the petition.
Writ awarded.