Case ID: tenn_138/html/0670-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "\n      Mr. Justice Williams", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

D. M. Baker v. I. H. Griffeth.
    (Nashville.
    December Term, 1917.)
    JUSTICES OF THE PEACE. Warrant. Amendment. Propriety.
    Under Thomp. Shan. Code, section' 5989, declaring' that no civil case originating before a justice of the peace and.carried to a higher court shall he dismissed for any informality whatever, and the court shall allow all amendments in the form of the action, the parties thereto, or the statement of the' cause of action necessary to reach the merits, a justice of the peace's warrant which is so defective in failing to state a cause of action as not to be cured by-verdict may be amended in the circuit court on any trial before verdict so as to set forth a cause of action.
    Cases cited and approved: Parris v. Brown, 13 Tenn., 267; Railroad v. Flood, 122 Tenn., 56; Railroad v. Davis, 127 Tenn., 167..
    Code cited and construed: Sec. 5989 (T.-S.)
    FROM WARREN.
    Appeal from the Circuit Court of Warren County to the Court of Civil Appeals, and by certiorari to the Court of Civil Appeals' from the Supreme Court. —Ewin L. Davis, Judge.
    Jno. L. Willis, for appellant.
    Smartt & TuRnee, for ‘appellee.
   Mr. Justice Williams

delivered the opinion of the Court.

A justice of the peace’s warrant which is so defective, in failing to state a cause of action, as not to he cured by verdict under the rule declared in Parris v. Brown, 5 Yerg. (13 Tenn.), 267, and Railroad v. Flood, 122 Tenn., 56, 113 S. W., 384, may be amended on any trial before verdict so as to set forth a cause of action. Thompson’s Shannon’s Code, section 5989. The opinions in both of the above cases so indicate. Parris v. Brown, supra, at page 270, and Railroad v. Flood 122 Tenn., at page 78, 113 S. W., at page 389.

It was not meant to be ruled in Railroad v. Davis, 127 Tenn., 167, 171, 154 S. W., 530, that a judgment rendered upon such a defective warrant would be void where there was no motion in arrest interposed as a test of its sufficiency; nor was it meant to be held that such a warrant is so far void as not to be amendable. It is voidable upon the application of said test.

Deny the writ of certiorari.