Public-domain · open source
OpenJurist

5 Ark. 569

Morrow v. Walker

Supreme Court of Arkansas

Decided January 15, 1850

Supreme Court of Arkansas · decided 1850-01-15

James Walker and wife, Temperance, filed a petition in the Probate Court of Washington county, praying the removal of George Morrow from the guardianship of George T. Morrow, a minor. The Probate Court revoked the order appointing Morrow guardian of said minor, and appointed one Leach in his stead. Morrow prayed an appeal to the Circuit Court, filed the necessary affidavit, but no bond for costs, and the appeal was granted.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1850-01-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 3 later decisions — most recently October 1910

3 state decisions

101850186018701880189019001910decided

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.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

Mr. Chief Justice Johnson

¶1delivered the opinion of the Court.

¶2This case, on the motion of the appellees, was dismissed by the Circuit Court for the w'ant of jurisdiction. The ground relied upon was, that there was no law authorizing the appeal. The act of 4th January, 1849, declares “that appeals shall be granted from any final order, judgment, or decree of the Probate Courts of this State, to the appropriate Circuit Courts, in the same manner as they are now allowed in certain cases from the Probate Court;” and “that appeals shall be granted from all orders or judgments of the County Court making allowances, or refusing to make allowance, to any individual or individuals, made in the County Court;” and “that, before such appeals shall be allowed, the party applying for the same shall make and file his affidavit, or the affidavit of some other person, that said appeal is not taken for delay, but that justice may be done; and a bond conditioned for the payment of all costs for which the applicant may be liable.”- There can be no question in regard to the right of appeal, in the case before us, but it is not so certain that the appellant did comply with the conditions annexed by the statute in order to enable him to enjoy the benefit of the right thus secured. It is by this act that the light is conferred, and the legislature possessed the undo ibte . power to impose such restraints upon its exercise as in their wisdem might seem just and proper. They have seen fit to require, ; s conditions precedent to the exercise of the right of appeal, that the party applying for the same shall make and file his affidavit, or the affidavit of some other person, that said appeal is not taken for the purpose of delay, but that justicp may be done, and a bond conditioned for the payment of all costs for which the appellant may be liable. These are restraints imposed upon the right, each of which must be removed before it can be exercised.

¶3It appears, from the record, that the appellant filed his affidavit in strict conformity to the act, but that he wholly failed to file any bond whatever. The Circuit Court, in the absence of .such bond, could not legally take cognizance oí the case, and consequently decided correctly in dismissing it. But, it having been dismissed for the want of the necessary steps in the Probate Court to enable the Circuit Court to exercise jurisdiction, it was clearly error to render a judgment for costs against the appellant.

¶4The judgment of the Circuit Court, for this error, must be reversed, and the cause remanded, with instructions to dismiss the cause but without any judgment for costs.

/5/ark/569 · .json · Public domain