Briggs v. Adams

Decided April 15, 1863

Illinois Supreme Court · decided 1863-04-15

. George MaNierre, Judge, presiding. George Adams instituted suit before a justice of the peace in Cook county, against Silas Briggs and Joel Briggs, for an alleged breach of warranty, upon an exchange of horses. The suit, while pending before the justice, was dismissed by the plaintiff as to the defendant, Joel Briggs, who had been Served with process, and proceeded to judgment against Silas Briggs, alone, who thereupon appealed to the Circuit Court.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1863-04-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 10 later decisions — most recently December 1918

1 federal appellate · 9 state decisions

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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Mr. Chief Justice Catón

¶1delivered the opinion of the Court.

¶2In actions not sounding in tort, when two or more are sued, judgment must be rendered against all who are served, or, if that cannot be, then against none. There are some exceptions to this rule where the defense is personal, as infancy or bankruptcy, which are the most familiar cases. This principle applies as well to actions commenced before justices of the peace, as in courts of record. When one of the defendants had been dismissed from the cause, it rendered it improper to proceed and render judgment against the other, either in the justice’s or the Circuit Court.

¶3It is unnecessary to consider the other errors assigned.

¶4The j udgment is reversed.

¶5Judgment reversed.