Case Name: Christopher Boyle and another vs. Eleanor P. Rice
Court: Connecticut Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Connecticut
Decision Date: 1874-09
Citations: 41 Conn. 418
Docket Number: 
Parties: Christopher Boyle and another vs. Eleanor P. Rice.
Judges: 
Reporter: Connecticut Reports
Volume: 41
Pages: 418–420

Head Matter:
Christopher Boyle and another vs. Eleanor P. Rice.
Exclusive jurisdiction is conferred by statute, (Acts of 1869, page 313,) upon the Courts of Common Pleas over all suits in equity wherein the matter in demand does not exceed $500, with a provision that “ in suits for the foreclosure of mortgages the jurisdiction shall be determined by the amount of the debt secured, as described in the mortgage.” A note of $500 payable in six months with interest, was secured by a mortgage, and the Court of Common Pleas passed a decree of foreclosure, finding the debt to be $559, and fixing that sum as the debt to be paid. Held that it had jurisdiction.
Writ op Error to reverse a decree of the Court of Common Pleas of Hartford County, rendered in a suit for the foreclosure of a mortgage.
The defeasance of the mortgage was as follows :—“ The condition of this deed is such, that whereas the said grantor is justly indebted to the said grantee in the sum of five hundred dollars, as evidenced by his promissory note of even date herewith, payable to the said grantee or order, six months after date, at the office of the Hartford Trust Company, value received, with'Interest and taxes ; now therefore if said note shall be well and truly paid according to its tenor then this deed shall be void, otherwise to remain in full force and effect.”
The amount found to be due at the time the decree was passed, and the payment of which was required by the decree, was $559.84.
The error assigned was the want of jurisdiction of the Court of Common Pleas, the matter in demand being more than five hundred dollars.
Goodman and Broehlesby, for the plaintiffs.
Aberdein, for the defendant.

Opinion:
Park, C. J.
We have recently held that the jurisdiction of the Court of Common Pleas in cases of mortgage foreclosures, depends upon the amount of the debt or liability expressly secured by the mortgage. The interest that may have accrued at the time the mortgage was given, or which might thereafter accrue, is not to be considered. Stone v. Platt, argued at the last circuit, (ante, page 285.) In that case the debt secured by the mortgage was a much larger sum than five hundred dollars, but was not due at the time the petition was brought. The foreclosure sought was for non-payment of the interest that had become due, which was much less than five hundred dollars.
The suit in that case was brought to the Superior Court, and we held that that court had jurisdiction of the case.
That case is decisive of the one at bar, and we have therefore no occasion to discuss the question.
There is no error in the judgment complained of.
In this opinion the other judges concurred.