Cole v. Hynes

Grason, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. This action was instituted before a justice of the peace in Baltimore County, and judgment was rendered in favor of the plaintiffs, and an appeal therefrom was taken to the Circuit Court of said county. A motion was then made hy the defendant, for the reversal of the judgment upon the ground, as was alleged in the motion, that it appeared “ on the face of the cause of action on which the judgment was rendered, that the justice of the peace rendering the the same, had no jurisdiction of said cause of action, inasmuch as the title to land is involved in said case.” The motion was overruled, and the trial proceeded, and after receiving the evidence set out in the bill of exceptions, the Judge of the Circuit Court affirmed the judgment from which the appeal was taken, and this appeal from the judgment of affirmance was brought to this Court. Section 14 of Article 51 of the Code provides, that “ no justice of the peace shall have jurisdiction in actions where the title to land is involved.” This action, it is alleged, ¹⁸⁴ was brought to recover a balance of purchase money, due on a sale of land by the plaintiffs to the defendant,- and that this appeared on the face of the cause of action filed in the case.

The account or cause of action which was the foundation of the suit, is not contained in the record, and we are therefore without the proper means of knowing whether it shows upon its face, that the title to land was or was not involved in the suit, and, in its absence, we must presume that the motion to reverse the judgment of the justice of the peace was rightly overruled. (Decided 2nd March, 1877.) In this State, bills of exception are not allowed in the trials of cases upon appeals, from judgments rendered by justices of the peace. If a party to such a suit, desires to raise the question of jurisdiction, he must do so before the justice, by filing the allegation verified by affidavit, presented by the 33rd section of Article 51 of the Code, or by plea or other proper proceeding, when the case is in the Circuit Court upon appeal. Bills of exception not being allowed in such cases, we are not at