Cooper v. Stocker
Cooper v. Stocker
Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the Court was delivered by
This was an appeal from an order granting a writ of prohibition against further proceedings under a verdict found by a jury of freeholders and magistrates in a ease of landlord and tenant. The suggestion upon which the .order was issued, is filed by James M. Stocker, and states that the facts of the case, as developed upon the trial, show that the said James M. Stocker went into possession of the premises in dispute upon the 15th of December, 1854, at the rate of six hundred dollars per annum, to be paid quarterly, without any agreement stated between the said Stocker and his landlord, George W. Cooper, as to the time at which the said occupation should terminate. It seems also from the evidence accompanying the report, that a few days before the year had expired, Mr. Cooper notified Mr. Stocker that he would be unable to renew his lease for another year, except upon certain conditions, and that these conditions not having been complied with, Cooper notified Stocker on the 15th December,
In Leonard’s case, 3 Rich. 113, the Judge who delivered the opinion of the Court, says, “ There is a wide difference between the different modes of bringing up cases for review and revision from inferior tribunals to the Courts of superior jurisdiction; and they ought not to be confounded from a desire to do justice in one forum, when it should be applied for in another. The true office of a writ of prohibition is not to enable the superior Courts to correct mere errors in judgment, as may be done on motions of appeal where appeals are allowed, or by writ of certiorari: but to restrain the usurpations of inferior tribunals, and to compel them to observe the limits of their jurisdiction.”
In the present case there is no pretence that the Court of magistrates and freeholders have exceeded their powers, or in any way gone beyond the limits of their jurisdiction. Their right to adjudicate the matter in controversy is undisputed.
The sole object of the suggestion is to correct, an error in judgment on the part of the presiding magistrates as to the construction of an Act of Assembly; and, according to
The motion is granted.
Motion granted.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.