Malson v. Vaughn
Malson v. Vaughn
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the Court—Cope, C. J. concurring.
This is an action brought upon a promissory note against Bristol, as maker, and Yaughn, as indorser, before a Justice of the Peace. The defendant Bristol plead in defense a set-off against Yaughn, the payee of the note, amounting to five hundred dollars. The plaintiff recovered judgment before the Justice of the Peace, from which the defendants appealed to the County Court, where the Court found for the defendants and rendered a judgment dismissing the suit, from which the plaintiff appeals.
The note sued on was for the sum of one hundred and forty-five dollars and sixty-four cents, but the amount due thereon at the date, of the judgment, including interest, greatly exceeded two hundred dollars. The respondent objects that this Court has no jurisdiction of the appeal, and contends that the interest due on the note cannot be added to the principal in estimating the “ matter in dispute.” In this he is mistaken. The interest should properly be included in the estimate.
The set-off or counter claim set up by the defendant Bristol, in
The judgment is therefore reversed and the cause remanded.
See Hamilton v. McDonald (18 Cal. 128).—Reporter.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- MALSON v. VAUGHN
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- 4 cases
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- Syllabus
- Under the Constitution before the amendments -which went into effect January 1st, 1864, an appeal could be taken to the Supreme Court from a judgment of the County Court, when the judgment appealed from, including principal and interest exceeded two hundred dollars. In an action in a Justice’s Court upon a money demand, the defendant cannot set up in his answer,-as a counter claim or set-off, a demand, amounting, exclusive of interest, to more than two hundred dollars. A Justice of the Peace has no jurisdiction to pass upon a counter claim or set-off unless it be for such a sum as the defendant might have maintained an action on against the plaintiff, in a Justice’s Court.