Case ID: ind-app_13/html/0181-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Reinhard, C. J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

No. 1,745.
    Shockney et al. v. Smiley.
    
      Pleading. — Complaint on Judgment Rendered by Justice of the Peace. —Must Show Jurisdiction. — In an action based on a judgment rendered by a justice oí the peace, the complaint must allege facts showing that the justice who rendered the judgment had jurisdiction, or, in lieu thereof, that the judgment was duly rendered, or the complaint will be insufficient on demurrer.
    Justice of the Peace. — Jurisdiction.—Presumption.—Nothing will be presumed in favor of the jurisdiction of a justice of the xieace.
    From the Randolph Circuit Court.
    
      T. Shookney, for appellants.
    
      A. Vorhis and Canada & Caldwell, for appellee.
   Reinhard, C. J.

This action is based upon a judgment rendered by a justice of the peace. The court overruled a demurrer to the complaint, and this ruling is assigned as error. There are no averments in the complaint which show that the justice who rendered it had jurisdiction. It is not shown that a summons was issued and served on the appellants, nor that there was any appearance by them, or either of them; nor that they, or either of them, resided in the township in which the action was brought at the time of its institution. Neither is it averred that the judgment was duly rendered. A justice’s court is one of limited jurisdiction, and nothing will be presumed in its favor. In the absence of averments showing jurisdiction the complaint is insufficient, unless it be alleged that the judgment was duly rendered. The latter expression is authorized by statute as a substitute for the averment of jurisdictional facts. Hopper v. Lucas, 86 Ind. 43.

Filed September 17, 1895.

Judgment reversed, with directions to sustain the demurrer to the complaint.