Coughlin v. Lyons

• Decision Date: 31 March 1857
• Citation: 24 Mo. 533
• Parties: COUGHLIN, Respondent, v. LYONS & SULLIVAN, Appellants.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

24 Mo. 533

COUGHLIN, Respondent,

v.LYONS & SULLIVAN, Appellants.

Supreme Court of Missouri.

March Term, 1857.

1. The technical rules of pleading should not be enforced in suits before justices of the peace; hence where the statement of the cause of action filed with the justice is in the following form: “1855. Feb. 20th. L. & S. to P. J. C., Dr. To 41 hams, 464 1/2 lbs. at 10 cents, $46.45; to 2 bbls. whisky, 77 1/2 galls. at 28 cts., $21.70; total $68.15;” held, that the cause of action was made good by proof that the articles enumerated, being the property of the plaintiff, P. J. C., had been wrongfully seized, at the instance of the defendants, L. & S., in an attachment suit against a third person.

Appeal from St. Louis Law Commissioners' Court.

Hart & Jecko, for appellants.

I. This action will not lie under the circumstances. The appellants had never received any part of the said goods into their possession or under their control. They were in the custody of the law, and no part of them had been converted in any shape by the law; but were, and remained, in the custody of the officer of the law. (Willett v. Willett, 3 Watts, 277; Sergeant v. Stricker, 1 Harr. 464.)

A. J. P. Garesché, for respondent, cited Floyd v. Whyley, 1 Mo. 458; Johnson v. Strader, 3 Mo. 254; Sparks v. Purdy, 11 Mo. 219; Hines v. McKinney, 3 Mo. 270; Mathew v. Johnson, 9 Mo. 232.

RYLAND, Judge, delivered the opinion of the court.

This court does not apply the formal technical rules of pleading to suits before justices of the peace; nor will we regard the nice distinctions separating forms of actions as formerly known to common law courts to the proceedings of justices' courts. The justice has the right to require of the plaintiff, when the parties appear before him, a brief verbal statement of the nature of his demand. This statement, like the defendant's defense, is not reduced to writing; the pleadings are not put down formally, but the parties know the matter in dispute, and can have it tried between them.

When the suit is founded on an instrument of writing, it must be filed with the justice; and when founded on an account, a bill of the items must be filed before the justice issues his process. The process is general, “to answer the complaint of the plaintiff.” Now here the account is as follows: “James Lyons and Edward Sullivan, partners as Lyons & Sullivan, to Peter J. Coughlin, Dr. 1855, Feb. 20th, to 41 hams, 464 1/2 lbs., at 10 cents, $46.45; 2 bbls. whisky, 77 1/2 galls., at 28 cts., $21.70; total, $68.15.” The proof shows that the defendants caused an officer of the law, a constable, to take this property-- the hams and whisky--from the plaintiff's...