Opinion ID: 1712060
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Whether the Harrison County Circuit Court was within its jurisdiction in hearing Thomas's appeal of the Gaming Commission's decision.

Text: ¶ 29. Thomas filed his appeal in the Jackson County Circuit Court, which denied the Isle and CDS's motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction and transferred the case to the Circuit Court of Harrison County. Isle and CDS contend that Thomas filed his complaint in the wrong circuit court, that the Jackson County Circuit Court should have dismissed his cause for lack of jurisdiction rather than transferring it to the Harrison County Circuit Court, and that Thomas's appeal should be dismissed because it was not timely perfected. ¶ 30. The Isle and CDS argue that the legislature only vested jurisdiction to review Gaming Commission decisions of patron disputes in the circuit court of the county in which the dispute arose. To support this contention, the Isle and CDS cite Miss.Code Ann. § 75-76-167(1) (2000), which states the following: Any person aggrieved by a final decision or order of the commission made after hearing by the commission pursuant to sections 75-76-159 through XX-XX-XXX, inclusive, may obtain a judicial review thereof in the circuit court of the county in which the dispute between the licensee and patron arose. (emphasis added). ¶ 31. This section governs the patron dispute at bar. Section 75-76-167 is placed among other sections which deal with patron disputes. ¶ 32. However, the Mississippi Constitution specifically provides that a suit improperly filed in the circuit court will be transferred to the appropriate chancery court, which will treat the case as if it was properly filed. Miss. Const. art. 6, § 157. A complimentary provision of the constitution requires that causes filed in the chancery court, over which the circuit court has exclusive jurisdiction, shall be transferred to the circuit court. Id. art. 6, § 162. ¶ 33. The constitution further provides that no civil judgment will be reversed solely for lack of jurisdiction when a non-equity case is erroneously filed in the chancery court, or vice versa. Id. art. 6, § 147. In interpreting section 147, this Court has held that: [T]he court is not to be constrained by the literal meaning of words used and as then used ... and particularly is this true in respect to provisions intended to prevent or remedy definite evils, otherwise the same evils, in whole or in part, under new names or different guises, could find another foothold within the same structure that was designed to keep them out. Moore v. General' Motors Acceptance Corp., 155 Miss. 818, 125 So. 411, 412 (1930). This Court went on to hold that section 147 also applies to actions filed in county court, even though the terms of the provision specifically state that it applies to chancery or circuit courts. In doing so, we refused to be confined to the terms chancery court and circuit court, so that litigation leading to a decree that is correct on the merits should not be reversed solely on the basis that the case was filed in a court without jurisdiction. Id. at 413. ¶ 34. In the case at bar, the Jackson County Circuit Court refused to dismiss Thomas's claim by analogizing the appeal of Gaming Commission decisions to the judicial review statute of the Mississippi Workers' Compensation Act. That section, Miss.Code Ann. § 71-3-51 (2000), states that appeals of Commission decisions should be taken in the circuit court of the county in which the injury occurred. The circuit court correctly observed that this statute should relate to venue, rather than jurisdiction, and rejected an argument similar to that rejected in Leake County Coop. (A.A.L.) v. Barrett's Dependents, 226 So.2d 608 (Miss.1969). ¶ 35. As the foregoing authority makes clear, jurisdictional and venue statutes are to be construed in the interest of justice, so that a legitimate claim, resolved correctly on the merits, will not be forfeited by filing in the wrong court. Regardless of whether Miss.Code Ann. § 75-76-167 (2000) confers jurisdiction or connotes venue, the proper course of action when a Gaming Commission decision is appealed to the wrong court is to transfer the action to the proper court. Otherwise, a claim could be inadvertently filed in the wrong court, subsequently dismissed, and then time-barred in the proper court. This is what the Isle and CDS ask this Court to do. We decline this invitation.