The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1881-12-28

joR q Ne CesS ~ AetNSh%
min Of Exceptions from tho Circuit Court Of
the ~. Judicial Cicui,--as follows,
The Plaintiff claimed of tho Defendant the
,um Of one hundred dollars, as damages caused
10 the Plaintiffs person, in that the Defendant
had assaulted the Plaintiff and bitten oa the
upper part Of the Plautt's forehpger Of the
left hand
And the Defendant by hiS Attorney, Alfred
& Hartwell, did ON the 18th day ot February,
A. u. 1850, file with the Clerk OF this Court,
his answer denying all the facts alleged IN the
Plaintiffs declaration,
And il appearing to the Court here that the
Plaintiff had previously brought his notion
Cor The same matters and things now alleged
AGAINST the Defendant before the District jus
lice of I.ihue, on the Island Of Kauai, hut That
said District Justice had dismissed the same
on the ground that he had no jurisdiction OF
causes of iltis nature, and this Court being oil
the opinion that only the said District Justice
has original jurisdiction OF thus cause, tue
Court did order that the Plaintiff SAID cause
he dismissed ON the ground that this Court has
no original jurisdiction thereof; aud that the
Plaintiff is Mt liberty to bring the same action
against the Defendant, before the said District
Justice. 1t also appeared that no appeal lad
been taken by the Plaintiff from the ruling oil
the District Justice declining jurisdiction as
aforesaid.
And the Defendant moves that instead of re-
maudinr said cause to the District Justice as
aforesaid his Court do order that Judgment be
entered for the Defendant and that the Plain
tiff take nothing herein by reason ct the Plain
tif's failure to appeal from the aforesaid rnl-
ing of the suid District Justice, but the Court
refused TO grant that motion.
BY THE COURT.
On examination of the complaint in this
case, VIC find that the proceedings in the Dis
trct Court were set forth in the complaint,
and thus the Circuit Court was apprized of
them. But this was an original action in the
Circuit Court, and it does not appear to ns to
have been relevant TO tue statement OF the
Plaintiffs matter of action to rehearse pro-
ceeding in the District Court, which had not
come up by appeal, nor was it relative TO the
bill Of exceptions we understand the ruling
of the Circuit Court. The Justices of the
Circuit Court dismissed the action on the
ground that the complaint, laying the damages
Mt $500, was within the exclusive original
jurisdiction of District Court, and could not
be entertained by the Circuit Court except by
appeal. Now the question Of the jurisdiction
Of the Circuit Court could not be affected by
the ruling of the District Justice; that is to
say; it would not follow that the Circuit
Court must take original jurisdiction because
a District Justice had held that he lad none,
but only if it was good in law that there was
no jurisdiction IN the lower Court. and there
fore must be in the original jurisdiction of the
higher Court. And ii it were held, wrongly,
1 81. l.. l..
ton i'll a case brought before him, and after
wards the same case being brought, by origi-
nal petition, before Circuit Court, or the SUI
prene CONT and it being held, in such supe-
rior Court, that it wa- matter of exclusive
original jurisdiction with the lower Court, it
could not be maintained in such lower Court,
upon the action being freshly brought, that the
previous ruling Of the lower Court would be a
bar hereto. The substantial question, for our
review, here, is whether the Circuit Court,
had original jurisdiction, either exclusive or
concurrent with the District Court, of the mat
ter laid in the complaint. Jurisdiction is a
matter of Statute, and the jurisdiction of the
inferior Courts is strictly determined by the
statute, and it is not to be extended by impli-
cation.
We quote here the statutes affecting the
subject
Civil Code $685. "Poice Courts "## shall
have exclusive original jurisdiction, within
their respective districts, over all police cases
proper, and over all cases, where the amount
of property, in dispute, shall not exceed one
hundred dollars, wherein one or both of the
parties foreigners"
Civil Code S9l5. " Each of said District
Justices shall have jurisdiction, subject to
appeal, to hear and determine all civil cases
wherein the property involved In controversy
or the amount of the Plaintiffs demand does
not exceed one hundred dollars"
Civil Code $3.50. "The respective Circuit
Courts shall have original jurisdiction to hear
and determine all civil suits between individ-
uaIs or in which the Government is Plaintiff
involving q greater amount of Indebtedness or
claim than one hundred dollars, and appellate
jurisdiction, in all such suits, when the amount
claimed does not exceed one hundred dollars.
They shall have power TO hear and determine
all private actions arising within their juris-
die ion, sounding in consequential injury or
damages without limit to amount of claim. "
Statutes of SOS, page 80. Amends Section
500 to read "Police Courts shall have exclu-
sive original jurisdiction within their respect
i've districts, over all police cases proper, and
over all cases where the amount of properly
in dispute shall not exceed two hundred dol
lars" thus emitting the limitation wherein
one or both of the parties are foreigners
and giving the same exclusive jurisdiction up
to two hundred dollars which they had had up
to one hundred dollars. The Statutes IF 1874,
chapter XXII, amend Section 0l5 by substitn-
ting the word two for one, raising the juris-
dction of District Justices also to two hun
| dred dollrrs.
1t is to be remarked that as the CiYil Code
i,ar &
| diction given to the police and District Courts,
! of one hundred dollars, symmetrically con-
! formed TO the provision in Section $50, giving
appellate jurisdiction to Circuit Courts in mat
tiers of indebtedness or claim" when the
amount claimed does not exceed one hundred
dollars "and original jurisdiction when such
claim is greater than one hundred dollars.
! We must therefore hold that, while the grant
Of jurisdiction to the Police Courts in Section
1913 is made exclusive in terms, the juris
diction of the District Courts is intended to be
exclusive, although that term is not employed
as to cases OF the character which Circui
Courts can entertain only on appeal. Fol
there is no other forum for them.
But there is a distinction made in Sec. $50
between civil suits involving Indebtedness oil
claim" and "pri' ate actions sounding in con-
sequential injury or damages, the jurisdic-
ton Of the Circuit Courts to the former be-
ing exclusively original or exclusively appel
ate as the amount claimed may be greater OF
may not exceed une hundred dollars and as tC
the latter being without limit to amount
of claim" that is without maximum term.
Section 9l5, likewise distinguishes cases
where property is involved in controversy
and where the amount is made by tie plain
tf's estimation or demand. The former
class would include assumpsit. trover and
rcpievin, the latter may be taken to include
what Sec. $50 terms factions sounding in