Jordan v. Walker
Jordan v. Walker
Opinion of the Court
I. Tbe judgment of tbe Circuit Court upon tbe former appeal was reversed and tbe cause was remanded. Tbe Circuit Court entered judgment in accord with tbe decision of this court, and sent tbe cause to tbe justice of tbe peace from whom it was brought upon writ of error, for a new trial, which was accordingly bad upon tbe original pleadings filed in tbe case and an amended answer of the defendant. Upon this trial a verdict was bad for plaintiff and judgment rendered thereon. The cause was again removed to tbe Circuii Court upon a writ of error. Tbe petition for tbe writ complains of many errors, some of them alleged to have occurred in tbe admission of evidence, others in tbe refusal to grant a continuance, and in tbe overruling of a motion to transfer tbe
And defendant’s abstract again fails in that it does not disclose certain rulings of the Circuit Court of which he complains in • his assignment of errors. But here again defendant permits us to escape from what would seem to he a hopeless task of determining just what the court below did decide, by omitting to discuss in his argument the errors assigned upon the hidden rulings of the court. The only question discussed by counsel is this:
Was the title to the real estate in question involved in the. action before the justice of the peace, so that he had no jurisdiction to try the case?
This question is presented in many different shapes in defendant’s assignment of errors, and is discussed, and nothing else, in the twenty points of His argument. The protean qualities of which the question partakes in the skillful hands of defendant does not conceal its true character. In .all its numerous forms the question discussed, as we have above stated it, plainly appears. We discover in the abstract that this question was decided by the court below; as counsel on both sides in effect so admit there can be no mistake upon this point. It is the only question we are called upon to decide upon this appeal.
III. It may be admitted that if the question of title was raised by the pleadings the justice had no jurisdiction of the cause, and he should, upon defendant’s motion, have transferred it to the Circuit Court. Code, § § 3535, 3620.
Did the pleadings in the case raise the question of title?
We held upon the former appeal that neither the petition nor answer, as these pleadings then appeared, presented a question of title. We are now required to determine whether the amendment to defendant’s answer filed at the second trial before the justice, which we have above quoted, raises the question of title. We have before stated that this amendment constitutes the only change in the ^Headings. It simply avers that defendant holds the fee simple title to the property and denies that plaintiff holds the title.
The denial of plaintiff’s title is not responsive to the petition, for, as we have held in our former opinion, the petition does not set up title. No issue of title was presented by this denial. The averment that defendant holds title is not of facts showing title in him, but of a conclusion of law. As it is an amendment to the answer, it must be read and understood as part of the original pleading which it is intended to amend.
Here the case ends. It would be an unauthorized and unprofitable task to attempt to follow defendant in bis argument and reply to his numerous positions. The endeavor would lead us to consider the facts of the case as presented in his argument, many of which are not found in the record and a still greater number have no bearing upon the only question involved in the ease. The judgment of the Circuit Court is
Affirmed.
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