Case ID: scl_17/html/0594-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Johnson, J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

D. E. Davenport v. Sherwood Corley.
    Columbia,
    May, 1830.
    A justice of the peace caqnot take cognizance of a suit against a constable, fov úeglectmg to levy executions delivered to him for that purpose. Ilis jurisdiction is limited to cases arising out of contract, express, or implied. vide Act of 1799, 2 Faust, 318.
    Tried before Mr. Justice Gantt, at Edgefield, Spring Term, 1830.
    This was an appeal from the judgment of a magistrate. The case will be sufficiently understood from the opinion delivered in the Court of Appeals. ' The presiding Judge dismissed ihe appeal ; and the defendant now moved to reverse his decision.
    Bauskett, for the motion.
   Johnson, J.

delivered the opinion of the Court.

The order of the Circuit Court affirming the judgment must be set aside, and the judgment itself reversed. The junBt'. r.t.i im of justices of the peace is, by express enactment, limited to cases arising out of contract; and to have intitled the plaintiff to recover, it was incumbent on him to have shewn, that the defendant was indebted to him, either by an express undertaking, or by implication of law. The .complaint here is, that the defendant, a constable, had neglected to collect the fees, due to the plaintiff as a magistrate, on executions which had been deliver» d to him. His neglecting to do so was a non-fenzimee, for which an action oil the case was the only remedy, and of tba' o magistrate has no jurisdiction, if the plaintiff had prnv, d, that the.defendant had collected tho fees, the law would imply a promise to pay them over; and that would have fallen within the jurisdiction-. But no such proof was offered.

Colcock, J. and Evans, J. concurred.

Judgment reversed.