Case ID: miss_94/html/0209-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Fletcher, J.,", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Frederick Switzer v. Edgar Benny.
    [47 South. 401.]
    Supreme Court. Jurisdiction. Suit begun in justice’s court. Amount in controversy. Appeal. Code 1906, § 86.
    Under Code 1906, § 86, authorizing an appeal from the. circuit court to the supreme court in cases originating in a justice of the peace court only where the amount in controversy exceeds fifty dollars, the supreme court has no jurisdiction of and will dismiss an appeal in a case so originating where the amount in controversy does not exceed said sum, although the parties have agreed that the record should he so amended as to formally show that the amount exceeded said sum.
    From the circuit court of Harrison county.
    Hon. William H. Hardy, Judge.
    Switzer, appellant, was plaintiff in the court below; Benny, appellee, was defendant there. From a judgment in defendant’s favor plaintiff appealed to the supreme court.
    The opinion of the court states the facts upon which the appeal was dismissed.
    
      J. H. Mize and Gex '& Harrison> for appellant.
    
      W. B. Harper, for appellee.
   Fletcher, J.,

delivered the opinion of the court.

This cause originated in the court of a justice of the peace about a cow worth $20, as shown by the affidavit in replevin and the officer’s return on the writ. When the case got to the circuit court, it was decided on a certain issue, and the parties, manifestly desiring to appeal to the supreme court, agreed according to a recital in the record that the affidavit in replevin should be so amended as to show that the cow was worth $51. It is clear, therefore, that the jurisdiction of this court is made to depend, not upon the real amount in controversy which is unquestionably only $20, but upon, an agreement as to what the affidavit shall recite; this agreement being, of course, entered into to escape the peremptory terms of section 86 of the Code of 1906. We cannot sanction such practice. It is obvious that the amount in controversy does not exceed $50, and we are therefore without jurisdiction. • Jurisdiction cannot be conferred on a court by consent of parties.

The appeal is therefore dismissed.