Case ID: minn_3/html/0359-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "— Emmett, C. J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Milton Pulver, Appellant, vs. William V. Grooves, Respondent.
    APPEAL PROM THE DISTRICT COURT OP HENNEPIN COUNTY.
    The powers of Court Commissioners are confined to those acts which may be performed by a Judge of the District Court at Chambers while acting as Judge merely, and notas a Court. See Cere vs. Weed, Ante %>.
    
    An order made by a Court Commissioner, which could only be made by a Judge acting as a Court, is a nullity, and leaves the caso in Court in the same condition as before the pretended order. There is nothing to appeal from, and the record may be purged of the order, upon application to the District Court,
    Motion before the Court Commissioner of Hennepin County, to set aside a summons, motion denied by the Commissioner, and the Defendant appeals.
    The points and authorities of Counsel do not refer to the question decided in the opinion of the Court.
    Jas. R. Lawrence, Counsel for Appellant.
    Noukse & Winthrop, Counsel for Respondent.
   By the Court

— Emmett, C. J.

The case of Cere vs. Weed <& Co., decided at this term, substantially disposes of the present case. We there held that the powers of a Court Commissioner were confined to those acts which may be performed by a Judge of the District Court at Chambers, while acting as Judge merely, and not as a Court / such as granting orders to show cause, extending time to plead, Jetting to bail, granting injunctions, and otherwise putting the process of the Court in motion, and generally such preliminary or intermediate matters as are allowed of course by a Judge on a prima facie showing, and which might be allowed by a single Judge, even where the Court was composed of several judges. The order here appealed from was not such an one as a Judge could make, except when acting as the Court. The Court Commissioner could not make such an order, and his act therefore is a nullity-This being the case, there was nothing to appeal from, and the canse still remains in the Court below in the same condition as before the pretended order was made. If the Defendant wishes to purge the record of the order of the Court Commissioner, his remedy is by application to the District Court. The appeal is dismissed without costs to either party.