Case ID: watts_8/html/0179-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Pee Curiam.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Mann against Bower.
    A justice of the peace has not jurisdiction of a suit by one joint owner of a chose in action against the other, for damages for a refusal to prosecute the claim on it, by reason of which it was lost.
    ERROR to the common pleas of Dauphin county.
    Charles Mann against George Bower. This suit originated before a justice of the peace, and was brought into the common pleas by appeal.
    
      The plaintiff, to maintain his action, made the following offer:
    “To prove that on the 10th day of May 1833, John C. Kettle-man executed two promissory notes to George Bower and Charles Mann, one for 60 dollars, payable in thirty days; and the other for 80 dollars, payable in sixty days, and delivered the same to the said George Bower for himself and the said Charles Mann, who had been dealing as partners in a single transaction; that, after the said notes fell due, the said Mann required Bower, who had possession of the notes, to collect the same, which the said Bower refused to do, alleging, at the same time, that the said Kettleman was worth thousands of dollars—that at this time the said Kettle-man was considered and generally understood to be in failing circumstances—that upon the refusal of the said Bower to collect the amount of said notes, the said Charles Mann requested Bower to pay him thirty dollars, which he claimed out of the notes, or else deliver them up to him that he might collect the money on them; that the said Bower positively refused to give up the notes to Mann that he might collect them, and that the said George Bower had the notes in his possession in the year 1837, without having attempted to collect them.”
    The defendant objected to the evidence on the ground, that if given, it established a cause of action of which a justice of the peace would have no jurisdiction; and the court (Blythe, president) rejected the evidence.
    
      Mricks, for plaintiff in error,
    cited 2 Watts 86; 3 Blac. Com. 159, 163; Chit. on Con. 5; 7 Watts 175, 542.
    McCormick, eantra,
    
    cited 2 Penn. Rep. 293; 6 Watts 386.
   Pee Curiam.

There is no colour of contract betwixt the parties to give jurisdiction to a justice of the peace. The party’s remedy, if he has any, is a special action on the case.

Judgment affirmed.