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33 Mo. 577

Adams v. Mortland

Supreme Court of Missouri

Decided March 15, 1863

Supreme Court of Missouri · decided 1863-03-15

I. The law commissioner has no jurisdiction because the amount claimed in the petition exceeds one hundred dollars. The action is in the nature of a common law action of trespass or trover. The wrongful taking and the conversion to defendants’ use are the gist of the action. Without these allegations there is no cause of action stated: with them as stated, tlfe action is to recover damages for a tort, and the recovery must be in damages.

Decided 1863-03-15

Dryden, Judge,

¶1delivered the opinion of the court.

¶2The only question in this case which we need notice is that raised by the defendant’s motion in arrest of judgment, and that is, whether the Law Commissioner’s Court had jurisdiction.

¶3The action is for a trespass in taking and carrying away the personal property of the plaintiffs, alleged to be of the *579value of one hundred and ten dollars and twenty-five cents. The damages were laid in the petition at one hundred and twenty-five dollars.

¶4The statute under which the court was organized limits the jurisdiction of the court in actions of trespass, and trespass on the case for injuries to personal property, to cases in which the damages claimed shall not exceed one hundred dollars. (R. C. 1855, p. 1597.) The damages claimed exceeding the prescribed limit, the cause of action was not within the jurisdiction of the court. The judgment must therefore be reversed, and the cause is dismissed.

The other judges concur.
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