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75 Mo. 29

Cranston v. Union Trust Co.

Supreme Court of Missouri

Decided October 15, 1881

Supreme Court of Missouri · decided 1881-10-15

<p>1. .Railroad: laborer's lien : justices’ courts. The statute does not confer upon justices of the peace jurisdiction of suits to enforce liens for labor done upon a railroad.</p> <p>2. -: -. A lien for labor done on a railroad must be enforced against the whole road, not against so much only of the road as is benefited by the labor.</p>

Relies on Knapp v. St. Louis, Kansas City & Northern Railway Co.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Aeeirmed · Decided 1881-10-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 6 later decisions — most recently March 1904

6 state decisions

30188118901900decided

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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Hough, J.

¶1This wras a suit instituted in the circuit court of Monroe county, to enforce a lien against the railroad of defendant, for work done upon its road-bed amounting in value to the sum of $22.43. The plaintiff recovered judgment and the defendants have appealed. Two grounds of error are alleged. 1st, That as the amount sued for was less than $50, the circuit court had no jurisdiction. 2nd, That the lien should have been enforced only against that portion of defendant’s road which was benefited by the plaintiff’s labor.

¶2Section 1102 of the Revised Statutes confers upon circuit courts “exclusive original jurisdiction in all civil cases, which shall not be cognizable before the county courts, probate courts and justices of the peace, and not otherwise provided by law.” Article 4, chapter 44 of the Revised Statutes confers jurisdiction upon justices of the peace to enforce ordinary mechanics’ liens, but no jurisdiction has ever been conferred upon justices of the peace to enforce liens against railroads. Under section 1102 of the Revised Statutes, the circuit court has exclusive jurisdiction of such suits.

¶3The second point relied upon by defendants, has been recently decided by this court against them, in the case of Knapp v. St. Louis, K. C. & N. R'y Co., 74 Mo. 374.

¶4The judgment of the circuit court will, therefore, be affirmed.

All concur.
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