Court Opinion

ID: 9574681
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 21:07:06.308484+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:41:53.103221
License: Public Domain

Given", Judge,
dissenting:
The pertinent provisions of Code, 56-9-1, 2, as amended, authorize the transfer of any “action, suit, motion or other civil proceeding”, then pending in any circuit court, “to any other circuit court”, where the trial judge “is so situated as to render it improper, in his opinion, for him to decide such case or preside at the trial thereof.” The court may, in such a proceeding, in such circumstances, “without motion or notice”, order the case to be removed to “any other circuit court”. Section 3 of the same article provides that on removal “the case shall be proceeded in, heard and determined by the court to which it is removed, as if it had been brought, and the previous proceedings had, in such court”.
Code, 56-1-1, provides that “ (g) If a judge of a circuit be interested in a case which, but for such interest, would be proper for the jurisdiction of his court, the action or suit may be brought in any county in an adjoining circuit.” Code, 56-3-5, provides that “Process from any court, whether original, mesne or final, may be directed to the sheriff of any county”. Code, 51-2-8, relating to the duty of a judge interested in the result of any litigation, specifically provides that “* * * nothing herein contained shall disqualify a judge who *771comes within the provisions of this section to enter a formal order designed merely to advance the canse towards a final hearing and not requiring judicial action involving the merits of the case”.
These several statutory provisions, all seemingly pertinent to the right or procedure of transferring the mandamus proceedings from the Circuit Court of Braxton County to the Circuit Court of Randolph County, lead me to the very definite conclusion that the mandamus proceedings were properly commenced, and effectively transferred by the order entered by the Circuit Court of Braxton County. The majority, as I understand, concedes that the actions were properly instituted and properly transferred, that is, “were commenced and as pending proceedings in that court and were subject to transfer by the judge of that court to the Circuit Court of Randolph County”. No reason is even suggested as to the insufficiency of the order of the Circuit Court of Braxton County to effect such transfer. At most, we can only surmise that the proceedings, though properly “commenced” and properly transferred, were somehow abated or dismissed by void process. The authorities cited, however, Ketterman v. Dry Fork Railroad Company, 48 W. Va. 606, 37 S. E. 683, and others, clearly show that the issuance of process, though void, ‘ ‘ operates to bring into existence the proceeding in which it is issued”. Any other rule would preclude any effective application of our statute, Code, 56-3-21, relating to the issuance of alias or other process. See Dunaway v. Lord, 114 W. Va. 671, 173 S. E. 568.
Of course, no one contends that the Circuit Court of Randolph County, or any other court, has power to enter a final judgment without proper service of process, or its equivalent, on the defendants. But no lack of such service of the rule issued, or any circumstance or fact of record which would deny the right of the Circuit Court of Randolph County to issue alias or pluries process, is disclosed by the record. It seems clear to me, therefore, that the proceedings in mandamus were not *772only properly “commenced”, but were properly transferred and are now pending in the conrt to which transferred, and that that conrt shonld not he prohibited from taking cognizance thereof. Each case shonld be permitted to be “proceeded in, heard and determined by the conrt to which it is removed, as if it had been brought, and the previous proceedings had, in such conrt”.
In the instant case, the mandamus proceedings having been properly “commenced”, and having been transferred to the Circuit Conrt of Randolph County pursuant to applicable statutes, were certainly pending therein, and unquestionably give that court jurisdiction of “the subject matter in controversy”, and there is most certainly nothing in the record in the instant case to indicate that that court has taken any action which “exceeds its legitimate powers”. It is not even attempted to be established that it even became necessary for the Circuit Court of Randolph County to cause to be issued “alias or other proper process”.
As to the controlling issue, the majority relies only on State ex rel. Howerton v. Tate, 66 N. C. 431, decided about 1872, cited in a later case, Moore v. The North Carolina Railroad Company, 67 N. C. 209. The only holding in the Howerton case, however, was: “Since the passage of the Act of 1870-’71, chap. 42, the Clerk of the Supreme Court of one county, cannot issue a summons returnable in the Superior Court of another.” The holding itself shows that it was based wholly on a statute of that state, not on any supposed ancient rule. To ignore our own pertinent statutes and to follow such a rule is, in my opinion, an attempt to follow a useless obscure technicality, in the face of, and in spite of, an adequate efficient statutory procedure. There is no reason that I can imagine why the order entered by the Circuit Court of Braxton County, directing the return of the process, was not ‘ ‘ designed merely to advance the cause towards a final hearing”. Such an order is specifically authorized by the statute quoted above. Why a useless procedure of making the process *773returnable before that court which was disqualified to hear the matters, thereby necessitating inconvenience and delay, or the dismissal of the proceedings then properly ‘ ‘ commenced”, and the institution of new proceedings in Randolph County under a different statute ?
Notwithstanding the majority holds that the Circuit Court of Randolph County has no jurisdiction to determine the questions of fact presented by the mandamus proceedings, the controlling issues of-fact being in dispute, as pointed out by the majority, the majority goes further as to the “future course of the controversy”, and observes “that even if the subject matter and the defendants in the mandamus proceedings were properly before the Circuit Court of Randolph County”, that court “would be without jurisdiction to hear and determine the proceedings in mandamus ’ ’, thus, in my opinion, determining questions of fact not presented to or decided by, or, in fact, not pleaded or developed before any court, and thereby precluding the parties from litigating the controversy. Though such statements may be dicta, as has been suggested, to me they are more, at least a clear warning that further attempt to litigate the matters of controversy, admitted by the majority never to have been brought before a court having jurisdiction, is absolutely useless. What right has any court to decide that members of a political party executive committee, a body having statutory status and powers, have not complied with rules, laws or duties, without affording such members a chance to develop, in a court having jurisdiction, the actual facts controlling such issues? To me such procedure is not merely abstruse; it is a denial of due process, a denial of the right to litigate an existing controversy, a controversy not only of importance to litigants, but also to the whole people, for the proper functioning of the election machinery is of prime importance to the people of the whole state.
Being of the views indicated, I respectfully dissent.