Teagarden v. Garver
Teagarden v. Garver
Opinion of the Court
Suit before a justice of tbe peace. The appellant appealed to the Court of Common Pleas, and filed an appeal bond in -due time, which the justice approved.
In the Common Pleas, the appellees moved to dismiss the appeal, because neither the appeal bond nor the justice’s certificate to the transcript was stamped with a United States revenue stamp. By permission of the court, proper stamps were attached to the appeal bond and justice’s cer
This, we think, was an error. We do not now determine whether, under the act of Congress, stamps were required to these papers, nor the still more important question as to the power of Congress to declare void the writs, &c., pertaining to suits brought in the courts of this state, for the want of such stamps. The latter question is now pending in this court in several cases in which its decision may be necessary. A proper disposition of this case, however, does not require that we should pass upon either.
The statute regulating appeals from justices of the peace requires the justice, on the filing of a proper appeal bond, to make out and certify a complete transcript of all the proceedings had before him, and transmit the same to the proper court, &c., and provides that no such appeal shall be dismissed for a failure of the justice to transmit a proper transcript within the time required by the statute, “nor for the insufficiency of the bond, if the appellant will file a sufficient bond to the acceptance of the court” to which the cause is appealed.
It was the duty of the justice to certify up a proper transcript, and if his certificate was insufficient for any cause, it was the right of the appellant to have it amended. The objection to it was the want of a stamp, and the justice amended it by affixing the stamp and canceling it, and if the want of a stamp rendered it defective, the .defect was cured by attaching it. And so with the appeal bond. It was a bond; the justice had approved it as such, and granted the appeal. If the want of a stamp rendered it void, then it was not a sufficient bond; but the appellant had the right to file a sufficient one, which he did by attaching the stamp to the old one, and making it sufficient. True, the statute requires that it must be to the acceptance of the court, but if no valid objection existed to it when stamped, and
The judgment below is reversed, and the cause remanded for further proceedings in accordance with this opinion.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Teagarden v. Garver and Another
- Cited By
- 1 case
- Status
- Published