Moore v. Stemmons

• Decision Date: 12 December 1905
• Citation: 90 S.W. 434,192 Mo. 46
• Parties: MOORE v. STEMMONS et al., Appellants
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

90 S.W. 434

192 Mo. 46

MOORE v. STEMMONS et al., Appellants

Supreme Court of Missouri, Division Two

December 12, 1905

Appeal from Jasper Circuit Court. -- Hon. J. D. Perkins, Judge.

Transfered to Kansas city court of appeals.

Shannon & Shannon for appellants.

C. W Bigger for respondent.

OPINION

GANTT J.

This is an appeal from the judgment of the circuit court of Jasper county, overruling a motion of the defendants to quash an execution levied by the sheriff of said county, on certain real estate held by the defendants as trustees of the Methodist Episcopal Church (colored) of Carthage Missouri, under a judgment of said circuit court against the defendants as trustees of said church, for $ 166.52 for debt, damages and costs. The grounds of the motion are: 1st, that the judgment upon which the execution was issued was void; 2nd, that the interest of the defendants in the real estate levied on in their representative capacity as trustees of the church is not subject to levy and sale for plaintiff's debt; 3rd, because the title of defendants in and to said real estate as trustees of the Methodist Episcopal Church (colored), of Carthage, Missouri, is held for the use and benefit of the Methodist Episcopal Church of the United States of America as a place of worship and not for the use and benefit of the Methodist Episcopal Church (colored), of Carthage, Missouri.

I. Has this court jurisdiction of this appeal under the Constitution of Missouri. It is obvious that the amount involved does not give us jurisdiction. It can only be surmised that the appeal was certified to this court on the ground that the title to real estate was involved. At the time this appeal was certified to this court, there were two decisions of this court, McAnaw v. Matthis, 129 Mo. 142, 31 S.W. 344, and Stinson v. Call, 163 Mo. 323, 63 S.W. 729, which justified such action, but in the recent decision of Lawson v. Hammond, 191 Mo. 522, 90 S.W. 431, handed down by Division No. One of this court, both of said decisions in McAnaw v. Matthis, and Stinson v. Call, supra, were reviewed and overruled.

The McAnaw-Matthis decision was promulgated in 1895 by Division No. 1. The appeal was from a judgment of the circuit court quashing an execution, levied on real estate of defendant claimed as a homestead. The St. Louis Court of Appeals certified the cause to this court on the ground that title to real estate was involved, and Division No. 1 of this court announced that "in this opinion we coincide," and cited as a precedent St. Louis v. Brooks, 107 Mo. 380, 18 S.W. 22. Afterwards, when Stinson v. Call, 163 Mo. 323, 63 S.W. 729, came before this Division, we accepted the ruling in McAnaw v. Matthis as controlling, and did not otherwise undertake to sustain our jurisdiction. Later, in State ex rel. v....