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46 Mo. App. 349

Tegler v. Mitchell

Missouri Court of Appeals

Decided July 2, 1891

Missouri Court of Appeals · decided 1891-07-02

— Hon. R. H. . Field, Judge. (1) The court erred in allowing plaintiff to file an amended complaint, because the one originally filed was not verified, and, the justice having no jurisdiction, the circuit court could not acquire jurisdiction on appeal of unlawful detainer. Reilly v. Powell, 34 Mo. App. 431 ; Fletcher v. Keyte, 66 Mo. 285; Turner v. Bondalier, 31 Mo. App. 582.

Relies on Schell v. Leland · McQuoid v. Lamb · Turner v. Bondalier

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Reversed · Decided 1891-07-02

How this case has been cited

Cited by 6 later decisions — most recently June 1913

6 state decisions

30189119001910decided

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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Ellison, J.

¶1This action is unlawful detainer. The affidavit to the complaint was insufficient in that the affiant swore that it was true “in substance.” Reilly v. Powell, 34 Mo. App. 431. But on appeal to the circuit court, pending a motion to dismiss, the complaint was permitted to be amended by appending thereto a. proper affidavit. This was rightfully allowed. R. S. 1889, sec. 5153. In Reilly v. Powell, no amendment was made or offered. The case of Turner v. Bondalier, 31 Mo. App. 582, is not applicable. The affiant in that case was a s.tranger to the proceedings at the time of making the affidavit. He made it as the agent of the plaintiff, and it was held that, as the plaintiff was an infant, he could not appoint an agent for such purpose. If was considered, therefore, that there was no affidavit in the case.

¶2There is a further objection, however,' which seems-to be fatal to plaintiff’s case. The complaint does not. allege the property detained to be in the state of Missouri. This case is one in which exclusive original jurisdiction is vested in justices of the peace, a court of inferior jurisdiction. We can indulge in no presumptions as to such jurisdiction. McQuoid v. Lamb, 19 Mo. App. 153 ; Schell v. Leland, 45 Mo. 289. As, by section 5091, Revised Statutes, 1889, a justice has jurisdiction only of lands in his county, and as it could not *351be pretended, that a justice would have jurisdiction of a case which failed to show the land detained to be in the county, we see no reason why it should not also appear to be in the. state. It, therefore, not appearing anywhere in the record that the premises are in the state of Missouri, the justice had no jurisdiction, and we will reverse the judgment and dismiss the cause.

All concur.
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