Public-domain · open source
OpenJurist

201 Ala. 521

78 So 875

Finney v. Baker

Supreme Court of Alabama

Decided April 4, 1918

Supreme Court of Alabama · decided 1918-04-04

C. Brickell, Judge. Action by D. C. Finney against James A. Baker. Judgment of inferior court for plaintiff was quashed by the circuit court on defendant’s petition for certiorari, and plaintiff appeals. Transferred from Court of Appeals under Acts 1911, p. 449, § 6.

Cited by 4 later decisions — most recently January 1931

4 state decisions

Relies on Independent Publishing Co. v. American Press Ass'n · Bradford v. Sneed · Lessley v. Prater

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Affirmed · Decided 1918-04-04

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

¶1The order and judgment of the circuit court quashing the judgment of the inferior court — which was in favor of the plaintiff in the action of unlawful detainer — in consequence of the appellee's petition for common-law certiorari to that end, was justified by the fact that the judgment of the inferior court, even when aided by its reference to the description of the land in the complaint, was wholly void. The judgment was that the "defendant restore to plaintiff the possession of the tract of land mentioned in the complaint." The complaint, to which reference was thus made, bore only this matter of description:

¶2" Two hundred and fifty (250) acres of land, more or less, on the McCalley place near Merrimack Mills in Madison county, state of Alabama. Being the same lands of which he has [was] heretofore in possession. "

¶3According to the apt authority of Bradford v. Sneed, 174 Ala. 113,56 So. 532, as explained in Lessley v. Prater,75 So. 355,1 the description in the complaint was of an uncertain part of a larger area; and was, *522 hence, below the reasonable certainty requisite to constitute a valid judgment.

¶4The judgment being void on the face of the record of the inferior court, the circuit court properly quashed it.

¶5Affirmed.

¶6ANDERSON, C. J., and SAYRE and GARDNER, JJ., concur.

¶7

On Rehearing.
Since a void judgment will not support an appeal (1 Michie, Dig. Ala. Rep. p. 324, § 112), the recourse to the remedy by common-law writ of certiorari to quash the judgment is not denied the defendant in the void judgment, rendered by an inferior court or a justice of the peace, during the period in which an appeal may, in a proper case, be taken and effected and a trial de novo had in the circuit court. Ind. Pub. Co. v. Amer. Press Ass'n, 102 Ala. 475, 492, 493, 15 So. 947.

¶8The application for rehearing is overruled.

¶9ANDERSON, C. J., and SAYRE and GARDNER, JJ., concur.

¶101200 Ala. 43.

/201/ala/521 · .json · Public domain