Whitehead v. Stoddard Cnty.

• Decision Date: 31 October 1859
• Parties: WHITEHEAD, Respondent, v. STODDARD COUNTY, Appellant.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

29 Mo. 138

WHITEHEAD, Respondent,

v.STODDARD COUNTY, Appellant.

Supreme Court of Missouri.

October Term, 1859.

1. An appeal will not lie under the general law of this state by a county from a judgment of a county court allowing an account against the same.

2. This rule applies to the district county court organized under the act of March 1, 1855, (Sess. Acts, 1855, p. 474,) for the counties of Stoddard, Dunklin and Butler.

Appeal from Bollinger Circuit Court.

Noell, for appellant.

I. The court erred in dismissing the appeal. An appeal lay in behalf of the county.

EWING, Judge, delivered the opinion of the court.

The respondent presented a claim against Stoddard county for fees and services as jailor in a criminal case, which was allowed in part by the district county court, from which the county took an appeal to the circuit court. A change of venue was taken to the Bollinger circuit court, where the appeal was dismissed. From this judgment the county has appealed to this court. The only question is whether an appeal by the county will lie from the district court.

By an act of the general assembly, approved March 1, 1855, several counties, among which was the county of Stoddard, were constituted a county court district, with a single judge, to be chosen at stated periods by the people of such district. The court thus established has the same powers and jurisdiction of other county courts of the state, but the act contains no provision relative to appeals, leaving that matter subject to the general law. The act to establish courts of records and prescribe their powers and duties confers upon circuit courts appellate jurisdiction from the judgments and orders of county courts and justices of the peace in all cases not expressly prohibited by law; and gives a superintending control over them. The ninth section of the third article of the act to establish and regulate county treasuries (R. C. 1855, p. 528) provides that, if any account shall be presented against a county, and the same or any part thereof shall be rejected by the county, the party aggrieved thereby may prosecute an appeal to the circuit court in the same manner as in other cases of appeal from the county to the circuit court. This provision gives an appeal only to the party whose claim against the county has been rejected in whole or in part, and by the clearest implication denies it to the county where the claim is allowed, and is equivalent to a prohibition in the sense of the statute...