LEGAL DOCUMENT

Case: Samuel Dunn v. Halsey C. Littlefield
Citation: 2 R.I. 97
Court: Supreme Court of Rhode Island
Jurisdiction: Rhode Island
Decision Date: 1852-03
Docket Number: 
Pages: 97–98
Volume: 2
Reporter: Rhode Island Reports

Parties: Samuel Dunn v. Halsey C. Littlefield.

Samuel Dunn v. Halsey C. Littlefield.
In appealed cases, where no pleas are filed in the inferior Court, the appellate Court will not permit pleas to he filed, and the only matter open for review is the assessment of damages.
Assumpsit, before Wm. P. Lewis, one of the Wardens of the Peace of the town of New Shoreham, where judgment was rendered by default for the plaintiff and an appeal taken by the defendant to the Court of Common Pleas. In the Court of Common Pleas the defendant moved for leave to file pleas, which motion was over ruled and the defendant excepted and brought the exceptions to this Court.
Sheffield for the defendant
contended, that the motion should have been granted because the case appealed stood in the appellate Court as if originally entered there, and further, that the Court had authority to grant leave to file the pleas under the statutes investing it with supervisory powers over inferior tribunals.

The Court held, that unless the plea was filed in the inferior Court the only matter open on the appeal was the assessment of damages, and stated that this had been the uniform rule of the Court in appeals from the Court of Common Pleas.