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12 Ind. App. 296

Blair v. Porter

Indiana Court of Appeals

Decided November 21, 1894

Indiana Court of Appeals · decided 1894-11-21

<p>Justice of the Peace. — Amendment of Complaint so as to Give the Justice Jurisdiction. — Action for Possession of Beal Estate. — Cases Distinguished. — A plaintiff in an action before a justice of the peace for the possession of real estate may, by leave of the justice, amend his complaint so as to bring the case within the justice’s jurisdiction. Goodwine v. Barnett, 2 Ind. App. 16, and Kiphart v. Brennemen, 25 Ind. 152, distinguished.</p> <p>Same. — Jurisdiction.—Beal Estate. — Justices of the peace have no jurisdiction to hear and determine actions for the recovery of real estate, except the relation of landlord and tenant has existed between the parties and the tenant is unlawfully holding over; when possession has been unlawfully and forcibly taken, or peaceably taken but unlawfully and forcibly detained.</p> <p>Amendment of Pleading. — Statute Liberally Construed. — Discretion.— The statute allowing amendment of pleadings is to be liberally construed, and to that end the trial court is endowed with great discretionary power, and its action will not be ground for reversal unless it affirmatively appear that harm has resulted therefrom.</p>

Relies on Goodwine v. Barnett · Kiphart v. Brennemen

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1894-11-21

How this case has been cited

Cited by 6 later decisions — most recently January 1931

6 state decisions

2018941900191019201930decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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¶1On Petition eor a Rehearing.

Ross, C. J. —

¶2The appellants have petitioned for a rehearing in this case, insisting that the opinion heretofore rendered overrules Goodwine v. Barnett, 2 Ind. App. 16, and Kiphart v. Brennemen, 25 Ind. 152.

¶3We are still of opinion that our original decision is right, and in no way conflicts with either of the above cases.

¶4In the case of Goodwine v. Barnett, supra,a complaint was filed which showed on its face that the justice had no jurisdiction of the subject-matter. After judgment rendered, the defendant appealed to the circuit court, where the plaintiff filed an additional paragraph of complaint in which was a cause of action of which the just*300ice had jurisdiction. The defendants not appearing, they were defaulted, and a judgment rendered against them on this new or additional paragraph. On appeal to this court, it was held, and we think correctly, that the justice having no jurisdiction the appeal conferred none on the circuit court, and the court, in support of that proposition, cited the case of Kiphart v. Brennemen, supra.

¶5In that case Kiphart sued Brennemen before a justice of the peace to recover the possession of real estate, and recovered judgment. On appeal to the court of common pleas, Brennemen moved to dismiss the action on the ground that the justice had no jurisdiction of the subject-matter. Pending this motion, Kiphart asked leave to amend his complaint by inserting therein the words “and forcibly and with strong hand,” which would have made the complaint state a cause of action clearly within the justice’s jurisdiction. The court refused to permit the amendment to be made, and on appeal the Supreme Court sustained the ruling of the court of common pleas. The two cases are identical, except in one case the amendment was permitted to be made in the Appellate Court and in the other it was not. In both cases, however, it was held that the justice having had no jurisdiction of the action, an amendment could not be made in the Appellate Court on appeal which would give it jurisdiction.

¶6In the case at bar, the amendment was not made in the superior court — to which an appeal had been taken from the justice — but the amendment was made in the justice’s court, and after an appearance thereto by appellant the cause was there tried and a judgment rendered against him. The justice not only had jurisdiction of the subject-matter of the action as embraced in the amended complaint, but he had jurisdiction over the person of the appellant, for he appeared thereto.

¶7The justice having had jurisdiction of both the sub*301ject-matter and the parties, the Marion Superior Court took jurisdiction by the appeal.

Filed March 19, 1895.

¶8Petition overruled.

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