Court Opinion

ID: 9827459
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-01 17:34:17.058775+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:42:31.646777
License: Public Domain

On Motions for Rehearing.
It is insisted that this cause should not have been dismissed, although this court or the county court may have been without jurisdiction. To this we cannot agree, for, if this court is without jurisdiction, it has no authority to take any action except to dismiss. This seems too clear for argument. As said by the Supreme Court of the United States in Ex parte McCardle, 74 U. S. (7 Wall.) 506, 19 L. Ed. 264:
“Without jurisdiction the court cannot proceed 'at all in any cause. Jurisdiction is power to declare the law, and, when it ceases to exist, the only function remaining to the court is that of announcing the fact and dismissing the cause. And this is not less clear upon authority than upon principle.”
In regard to defendant in error’s contention that jurisdiction was agreed to by plaintiff in error, it may be suggested that parties cannot set aside by agreement the law so as to give a justice’s court jurisdiction of cases of which the law gives county or district courts jurisdiction.
The motions for rehearing are overruled.