Piper v. Gunther & Sons
Piper v. Gunther & Sons
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion op the court.
By the provisions of an act of the General Assembly, entitled “An Act to regulate civil proceedings in actions in the Daveiss Circuit Court,” the clerk of the court was required to keep an equity-trial docket in addition to the equity-docket provided for by general law. It was also provided “ that ho case should stand for trial or judgment unless set down on the trial-docket before the first day of
The appellees brought this suit in the Daveiss Circuit Court to recover judgment on a purchase money note for a town lot, and to enforce their lien thereon. At the January term, 1898, the case was called and the plaintiffs moved for judgment. The.defendant (appellant) objected upon the ground that the case did not stand for trial. It Was conceded that the action had not been placed on the equity-trial docket, as provided by the special act. The court rendered a judgment in behalf of the appellees over the objection of the appellant, and also overruled his motion to set the same aside, made on "the ground that its rendition was a clerical misprision. The ¡appellant brings the case up, insisting that by reason of the special act mentioned the case, did not stand for trial •or judgment, and that the judgment complained of was rendered prematurely.
The appellees contend that by virtue' of the present ■Constitution the special act affecting the practice in the Daveiss Circuit Court is no longer, in force, and hence the judgment was properly rendered. The learned circuit judge has supported this contention — that the special act has been repealed — by an elaborate and somewhat plausible opinion, the purport of which is, that the court to which the act alone applied was created by virtue of the Constitution of 1850. This old Constitution has been superseded by the new, which, by its 125th-section, creates a new circuit court in each county. The Daveiss Circuit Court, to regulate the practice in which the special .act in question was passed, is not the Daveiss Circuit
These “practice acts,” so to speak, do not form a part of the old courts, “ as constituted and organized,” in the meaning of the Constitution, and are not, therefore, discontinued simply because the old courts are discontinued. On the contrary, “ that no inconvenience may arise from the alterations and amendments made in this Constitution,” the fh’st clause of the schedule provides, “that all laws of this Commonwealth in force at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, not inconsistent therewith, shall remain in full force until altered or repealed by the General Assembly,” etc.
These various acts regulating practice are “laws of the Commonwealth.” They are not repealed simply because the courts to which they relate are discontinued-, as constituted and organized theretofore, but their repeal is made to depend on whether they are inconsistent with the new Constitution, and whether inconsistent or not is a question not involved in the argument at hand. This phase of the question will be considered further along.
The Legislature has provided the course of procedure in circuit courts having continuous sessions (chapter 124, Acts 1891-92-93, page 419), but no general law has as yet been provided for the other circuit courts. Until this shall be done, we think the special acts regulating the practice in these courts, as well as the general laws on the subject, stand unrepealed; and are in fact expressly continued in force by the first clause of the schedule.
The judgment below was prematurely rendered, and is reversed, with directions to set it aside and for proceedings consistent herewith.
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