Court Opinion

ID: 9825562
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-01 13:23:43.496139+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:41:00.087117
License: Public Domain

RIGE, J.
By the act creating the municipal court of Birmingham it is provided that “after five days from the rendition of a judgment in any cause the said judgment shall he beyond the jurisdiction and out of the power of the court the same as if the term of the court ended on said fifth day after the rendition of said judgment.” Local Acts Ala. 1915, pp. 231, 235, § 13. And also that said court “shall have the power to set aside, vacate or mpdify its judgments in civil cases upon motion made within five days after the rendition of same, which said motion must be promptly determined.” Id. p. 238, § 27.
In this case a suit brought by appellant against appellee in the municipal court of Birmingham had been “dismissed for want of prosecution.” Within five days of the date of such dismissal she filed her motion to reinstate the cause, but no order was made on such motion until more than five days had elapsed both from the date of dismissal and from the date of filing the said motion. There seems to us no question but that, by failing, to make an order granting, denying, or continuing to a day certain, appellant’s said motion, within five days from the date of the rendL tion of the judgment dismissing the cause, the municipal court of Birmingham lost all jurisdiction over the case.
Consequently all its proceedings after the expiration of five days from the date of its judgment of dismissal of the cause were void. Appellee, waiving nothing as he did, was entitled to have the appeal dismissed upon his motion in the circuit court. And the judgment of "that court dismissing the appeal is here affirmed.
Affirmed.