Moore v. Stemmons

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

90 S.W. 434

192 Mo. 46

MOORE v. STEMMONS et al.

Supreme Court of Missouri, Division No. 2.

December 12, 1905.

COURTS—JURISDICTION OF APPELLATE COURTS —QUESTION INVOLVING TITLE TO REALTY.

A question as to the right to levy on certain realty is not sufficient to give the Supreme Court jurisdiction on the ground that title to realty is involved.

Appeal from Circuit Court, Jasper County; J. D. Perkins, Judge.

Action by Robert Moore against John Stemmons and others. Appeal by defendants from a judgment overruling a motion to quash an execution. Transferred to Kansas City Court of Appeals.

Shannon & Shannon, for appellants. C. W. Bigger, for respondent.

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, Mo., 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: (1) that the judgment upon which the execution was issued was void; (2) 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; (3) because the title of defendants in and to said real estate as trustees of the Methodist Episcopal Church (Colored) of Carthage, Mo., 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, Mo.

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, 90 S. W. 431, handed down by division No. 1, of this court on November 22, 1905, not yet officially reported, 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...