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21 Wis. 385

Stoppenbach v. Zohrlaut

Wisconsin Supreme Court

Decided January 15, 1867

Wisconsin Supreme Court · decided 1867-01-15

Action for damages for obstructing an alley in the rear of plaintiff’s Tillage lots. The defendants are alleged to be the owners of certain adjoining lots, on both sides of the alley, and to have built a single fence enclosing all their said lots, and thus closing up the alley. The right of all lot owners in the block to the free use of such alley is alleged, and also special facts to show plaintiff’s damages, which are laid at $100.

Cited by 3 later decisions — most recently January 1898

3 state decisions

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1867-01-15

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Dixon, C. J.

¶1A right of way contested or denied raises a question of title to lands, over which a justice of the peace has no jurisdiction; but a right of way admitted, or not denied, does not. The defendants, by their demurrer, admitted that a right of way existed as alleged in the complaint, and the issue thus formed was one over which the justice had - jurisdiction, the same as if the action had been for a trespass upon land in possession of the plaintiff, and his title to the land had been admitted. The justice, therefore, erred in dismissing the suit for want of jurisdiction ; and the circuit court was right in reversing his judgment.

¶2A judgment of dismissal is a final judgment, from which an appeal may be taken to the circuit court, although no costs are given against the plaintiff. And the plaintiff, not having made oath, at the time of appealing, that he had a valid claim against the defendant, as set forth in his complaint, exceeding the sum of fifteen dollars, the circuit court was also right in simply reversing the judgment of the justice. In such case there can be no new trial in the circuit court. The judgment of the jus*387tice can only be reversed, and that is the end of the action. R. S., ch. 120, secs. 217 and 218.

¶3By the Court.- — Judgment affirmed.

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