Case Name: Du Bay vs. Gould and another
Court: Wisconsin Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Wisconsin
Decision Date: 1852-12
Citations: 3 Pin. 468
Docket Number: 
Parties: Du Bay vs. Gould and another.
Judges: 
Reporter: Pinney
Volume: 3
Pages: 468–474

Head Matter:
Du Bay vs. Gould and another.
County Court — Jurisdiction.— A county court has no jurisdiction of an action in which the debt or damages claimed exceeds $500, al though the cause of action arose in the same county. Knowlton, J., dissenting.
ERROR to the County Court for Portage County.
Gould & Sparr brought an action of assumpsit in the county court for Portage county against Du Bay, and declared for the sum of $1,500, the price and value of logs delivered by them to the defendant, in said county.
The defendant moved the court to dismiss the action for want of jurisdiction, the sum claimed therein exceeding the sum of five hundred dollars, but the court overruled the motion, and the defendant pleaded the general issue. Upon the trial, the plaintiffs recovered only $444.80 damages, besides costs; and the defendant brought error.
Collins, Smith & Tappan, for plaintiff in error,
argued that as the sum demanded in the court below exceeded five hundred dollars, the county court had no jurisdiction of the action, and cited R. S., eh. 86, sec. 2.
Catlin, Abbott & Clark, for defendants in error:
1. The county court has jurisdiction to an amount exceeding five hundred dollars in all civil actions, arising within the county where such court is held. R. S., ch. 86, sec. 2. 2. If the county court had not jurisdiction to an amount exceeding five hundred dollar's, yet there is not, in this cage, error, for the jury found for said defendant in error, a sum less than five •¿hundred dollars.

Opinion:
Per Curiam.
The judgment of the court below is reversed for want of jurisdiction in that court.