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3 Ill. 456

Scammon v. Cline

Illinois Supreme Court

Decided December 15, 1840

Illinois Supreme Court · decided 1840-12-15

This was a suit originally commenced by Scammon against Cline, before Alexander Neely, a justice of the peace of Boone county. The defendant removed the cause from Neely to Hiram Waterman, another justice of the peace of said county, before whom the cause was tried, and a judgment rendered for the defendant, on the 21st of February, 1839.

Decided 1840-12-15

Wilson, Chief Justice,

¶1delivered the opinion of the Court:

¶2The Court is of opinion that this case was improperly dismissed. Although the appeal bond appears to have been taken by the clerk before the time for holding the Court was fixed by law, yet the Court itself must be considered in existence at that time, otherwise there • would have been no clerk by whom the appeal could be allowed. Until the legislature fixed the time for holding the Court, this authority was, by a prior law, vested in the judge, and whether he exercised the authority, by designating a time, is immaterial.

¶3The existence of the Court, and the right to take an appeal to it, must be regarded as having commenced with the appointment of a clerk of the Court, by the judge thereof.

¶4As respects the jurisdiction of the Court, for the want of which this case was dismissed, we are also inclined to think, that if the Court had jurisdiction at the time its process was issued, it ought to have entertained and tried the cause.

¶5Judgment, therefore, is reversed, and the cause remanded to the Circuit Court for trial.

¶6Judgment reversed.

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