Case Name: Andrew Climie v. Arthur M. Odell
Court: Michigan Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Michigan
Decision Date: 1870-01-08
Citations: 20 Mich. 12
Docket Number: 
Parties: Andrew Climie v. Arthur M. Odell.
Judges: 
Reporter: Michigan Reports
Volume: 20
Pages: 12–13

Head Matter:
Andrew Climie v. Arthur M. Odell.
Statutory Appeals : Enlarging the time. The time fised by statute for taking an appeal may be enlarged by stipulation of the parties, in eases where the Court has powez*, upon cause shown, to authorize the appeal.
Heard and decided January 8.
Error to Calhoun Circuit.
Odell recovered a judgment on the 7th of April, 1865, before a Justice of the Peace for tbe County of Calhoun, against Climie, for $275. Three days after the judgment was rendered, the parties stipulated that the defendant might, on or before the 25th day of April, “remove said cause by appeal or certiorari to the Circuit Court for the County of Calhoun, in like manner and with like effect in all respects, as if the same had been done within five days from the time of the rendition of the judgment therein; and that no execution should issue until after the 25th day of April. The appeal was taken and entered in the usual form on the 22d day of April. The cause was regularly noticed for trial at the November term, 1865, and for the several succeeding terms to February term 1867; — at each of which terms it was continued by- consent, except the last, when on motion of the defendant, the appeal was dismissed, on the ground that the appeal was not taken within five days after the rendition of the judgment by the Justice. The appellant brings the cause into this Court by writ of error.
D. D. Hughes, for plaintiff in error.

Opinion:
The Court
held that when a statute fixes absolutely the,time within which an appeal must be taken, the appellate Court has no power to enlarge it; and its jurisdiction to entertain the appeal depends upon a compliance with the statute. But when, as in this instance, the statute gives the appellate Court power, under certain circumstances, to authorize the appeal, the parties may, by stipulation, agree to extend the time beyond the period fixed by the statute; and having done so in this case, the Court below erred in dismissing the appeal.