State ex rel. McCullen v. Seaboard Air Line Railway
State ex rel. McCullen v. Seaboard Air Line Railway
Opinion of the Court
While it does not so appear upon the face of. the complaint, we take judicial notice of the fact that the Seaboard Air Line Railway Company does not pass through the county of Craven; hence no delay could have occurred in transporting plaintiff’s goods in that county. Revisal, sec. 420, prescribes that an action for a penalty imposed by statute must be brought in the county where the cause of action, or some part thereof, arose. Defendant concedes that, if the action is brought in the wrong county, the court, upon motion, will not dismiss, but remove the action to the proper county. The statute (Revisal, sec. 425) provides that, if the county named in the summons be not the proper county, it may be tried therein, unless the defendant, before the time of answering expires, demands in writing that the trial be had in the proper county, etc. It is manifest that the question of venue is different from that of jurisdiction, which can be raised only by demurrer. Revisal, sec. 414. The demand for removal is in no proper sense equivalent to a demurrer for that the court has no jurisdiction. In Rankin v. Allison, 64 N. C., 673, it is said the Court “might consider the answer” an application for removal. It did not do so, and we are not disposed to consider the remark of the Court as an authority requiring us to dispense with an express statutory provision. The Code of Civil Procedure had but lately been adopted, and this Court frequently overlooked a failure to comply strictly with its provisions. In Cloman v. Staton, 78 N. C., 235, it is said that a motion to dismiss because the action is brought in the wrong county will be treated as a motion to remove. In that case the court below dismissed the action. These two cases are not decisive of the question presented here. It is the manifest purpose of the law to require the defendant to make the motion for removal at the earliest opportunity; to the end that the objection be either waived or disposed of, so
Our attention is called to the decision in Edgerton v. Games, 142 N. C., 223. It will be observed that, while there were three causes of action set forth in the complaint, each of them involved title to the horse, which was the real subject-matter of the controversy. If plaintiff recovered upon either cause of action, he claimed the horse. The distinction between that case and the one before us is obvious. Here no property is claimed; only a money judgment can be rendered in any aspect of the case. His Honor was right in refusing to remove the cause. The judgment must be
Affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- STATE ex rel. J. P. McCULLEN v. SEABOARD AIR LINE RAILWAY
- Status
- Published