Funkhauser v. Colloty
Funkhauser v. Colloty
Opinion of the Court
This certiorari removes a writ of restitution, judgment, order and proceedings in an action for forcible entry and detainer brought by Dela 'Eunkhauser against Eugene M. Oolloty and Maria Oolloty, his wife, in the District Court of Atlantic City.
The return does not show any judgment. After a note of the retiring of the jury is the entry: “After due deliberation the jury returned and rendered a verdict of not guilty as to Maria Colloty and guilty as charged in the complaint against Eugene M. Colloty. The jury then discharged.” After that is air entry of filing a notice asking for a new trial; that the motion was not pressed, a bill of costs and the amount trebled and “3-20-1901 writ of restitution issued.”
The District Court act provides (Pamph. L. 1898, p. 596, § 103) : “If the jury find the party against whom such complaint is exhibited guilty, or find against his plea of possession, it shall be the duty of the clerk of the said court to record the said verdict and the court to give judgment thereon, with trebled costs.” The language used in the “Act concerning forcible entry and detainer” (Gen. Stat., p. 1598, § 13) is: “It shall be the duty of the said justice to record the said verdict and give judgment thereon, with trebled costs.”
This language was considered in the case of Kerr v. Phillips, 2 Soiith. 818. In that case the justice entered judgment in these woids: “Whereupon I give judgment for the plaintiff for the said unlawful detainer, with costs of suit being trebled, amounting to $80.16;” and in reversing that judgment the court held: “If the plaintiff prevails in this trial the whole object of the law is that he shall have restitution of his land, and for this the judgment must be rendered. If the jury find the defendant guilty, the act says the justice shall record their verdict and give judgment thereon. The judgment must be that the plaintiff be restored to the possession of his land thus unlawfully detained from him. The mere verdict of a jury and the receiving and recording of it by the court do not warrant the issuing of an execution; the court must first pass upon it and pronounce the judgment of the law upon it.”
In Cowman v. Barber, Pen. 688, the judgment rendered by the justice was a judgment of guilty, instead of a judgment of restitution, and was therefore reversed.
In this case there is no judgment whatever.
It further appears from the entry in the docket of the court that the jury rendered a verdict of guilty against one of the defendants, Eugene M. Colloty, March 14th, 1901, and the writ of restitution is tested March 20th, 1901, the sixth day after the verdict was rendered. The act provides as follows (Pamph. L. 1898, p. 597, § 104) : “Ho writ of restitution shall be issued by any District Court upon any judgment rendered therein in pursuance of the provisions of the preceding section of this act until eight entire days, exclusive of Sundays, shall have elapsed after rendition of such judgment.”
The evidence in this case shows that the premises in question were leased to the husband of the plaintiff below by a lease expiring February 6th, 1901; that these premises were occupied by the plaintiff below, her husband and child all living there together, and that during the time that the defendants below were removing the furniture from the house and doing the other acts which it is claimed constituted the forcible entry and detainer alleged in the complaint, the husband of the plaintiff was actually present in the house with his wife and child. He was as much in possession as his wife, and
The action for forcible entry and detainer is directed against a violation of possession, and necessarily the plaintiff must establish his possession. In the present case the plaintiff has failed to establish this possession, but her husband’s possession has been clearly proved.
The proceedings removed should be set aside.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.