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57 Mo. 222

Stemmons v. Carey

Supreme Court of Missouri

Decided July 15, 1874

Supreme Court of Missouri · decided 1874-07-15

<p>1. Justices' courts — Formal judgment unnecessary in. — In trials in justices’ courts a verdict will be held as a judgment, and the entry of a formal judgment is not required.</p>

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1874-07-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 4 later decisions — most recently March 1922

4 state decisions

10187418801890190019101920decided

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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NaptoN, Judge,

¶1delivered the opinion of the court

¶2This action was brought before a justice, upon an account filed for $32.00 ; the items being four tons of hay at $8.00 per ton.

¶3Upon the trial in the justice’s court, the jury found for the defendant, and thereupon the justice entered on his docket, “It is therefore adjudged by me that the plaintiffs pay the costs herein expended.”

¶4On the trial in the Circuit Court, the plaintiffs obtained a verdict for $25.00. There was a motion for a new trial, and a motion in arrest, but as the bill of exceptions does not show the evidence in the case, nor the instructions, the only points arising here are: first, that there was no formal judgment entered by the justice, and, secondly, that there was no statement of facts constituting the cause of action before the justice.

¶5As none of the evidence is before us, it is impossible for the court to see whether the cause of action was correctly stated or not, and in regard to the judgment for costs not being a final judgment, it was held at a very early period, that on trials in a justice’s court the mere verdict of the jury would be held a judgment, (8 Mo., p. 12) and the entry of a formal judgment is not required as in courts of record. (See Hazeltine vs. Rensch, 51 Mo., 51.)

¶6The judgment is affirmed.

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