Case ID: ad_162/html/0186-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Smith, P. J.:", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Sarah P. Randall, Respondent, v. Nora Osborne, Appellant.
    Third Department,
    May 6, 1914.
    County Court—jurisdiction to modify judgment of Justice’s Court.
    Where the plaintiff filed a verified complaint in a Justice’s Court, which, if the matters alleged therein were true, entitled her to judgment, and the defendant after a denial of her motion for a dismissal of the complaint refused .to file a verified answer, and the justice dismissed the complaint, the County Court on appeal may, under section 3063 of the Code of Civil Procedure, grant a judgment in favor of the plaintiff.
    Appeal by the defendant, Nora Osborne, from a judgment of the County Court of Hamilton county in favor of the plaintiff, entered in the office, of the clerk of said county on the 28th day of Hay, 1918, reversing a judgment of a Justice’s Court which dismissed the complaint and directing a judgment as prayed for in said Justice’s Court.
    
      Eugene D. Scribner, for the appellant.
    
      William H. Bass [Clarence W. Smith of counsel], for the respondent.
   Smith, P. J.:

In Justice’s Court plaintiff filed a verified complaint which, if the matters therein alleged are true, entitled the plaintiff as matter of law to a judgment for thirty dollars. The defendant appeared and moved to dismiss the complaint on several grounds, which motion was denied. Thereafter the defendant refused to file a verified answer, the effect of which refusal was an admission of the matters alleged in the complaint and entitled the plaintiff to judgment under section 2988 of the Code of Civil Procedure. The justice, however, dismissed the complaint. Upon an appeal to the County Court the judgment of the justice was necessarily reversed, and as the plaintiff’s cause of action stood admitted before the justice the County Court directed the judgment which the justice should have directed. Under section 3063 of the Code of Civil Procedure the County Court is required to render judgment according to the justice of the case, and may affirm, modify or reverse the judgment in whole or in part. What the County Court in effect did was to modify the judgment from a judgment of dismissal to a judgment in favor of the plaintiff, to which judgment plaintiff was entitled as matter of law. This was clearly within the power of the County Court, and the judgment appealed from should, therefore, be affirmed, with costs.

All concurred.

Judgment affirmed, with costs.