Case ID: mich_38/html/0243-02.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Per Curiam.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

The People ex rel. Dorothy Stortz v. The Circuit Judge for Ingham County.
    
      Breach of promise.
    
    Breach of promise must be sued for in assumpsit before a justice of the peace if the damages are below $100.
    
      Costs go to the defendant when judgment for breach of promise does not exceed $100.
    Mandamus.
    Submitted January 22.
    Decided January 23.
    Denied.
    
      Chapin & Handy for the relator.
    
      M. V. Montgomery for the respondent.
   Per Curiam.

Breach of promise is sued for in assumpsit like any other agreement; and no statute has denied jurisdiction over such suits to justices of the peace, whose jurisdiction is exclusive in assumpsit to $100.

It was decided in Strong v. Daniels, 3 Mich., 466, that where the judgment is for an amount within the jurisdiction of a justice, and not reduced by set-off from a larger sum, or otherwise specially provided for in the statutes concerning costs, the defendant and not the plaintiff is entitled to costs. There is a clerical error in the recital of the statute in that case as reported.

The circuit judge was right in holding that on a judgment for $100, costs should go to defendant.