Reese v. Lawless
| Decision Date | 09 October 1816 |
| Citation | 7 Ky. 394 |
| Parties | Reese v. Lawless. |
| Court | Kentucky Court of Appeals |
Wherever the Circuit Courts possess jurisdiction over the subject matter in contest, they have a right to award writs of prohibition against Courts of inferior jurisdiction.
Prohibition awarded to justices and County Courts, against deciding penalty cases of five pounds, imposed by statute for establishment of ferries.
THIS is an appeal from a judgment of the Warren Circuit Court awarding a writ of consultation in a proceeding by prohibition in that Court, but at the instance of the appellant.
The object of the writ of prohibition was to prevent the County Court of Warren from proceeding to a determination of various appeals depending before it, and which had been taken by the appellant, Reese, from judgments awarded against him by justices of the peace in favor of Lawless. [(a)]
There is no question but what the subject matter of the appeals is cognizable in the Circuit Court, and ought not to have been brought into discussion in the County Court; but whether the Circuit Court ought in a proceeding by prohibition to have prevented the County Court from deciding upon those appeals we are in this case called upon to determine.
The right of so proceeding, it will be admitted, is not anywhere specifically given by statute; and if it should be exercised by the Circuit Court over the County Court, it must be on account of its original jurisdiction over the subject matter in contest.
In England, according to the settled doctrine of the law, the Courts of Westminster do, by prohibition, prevent the inferior Courts of the kingdom from proceeding in cases not cognizable before them--(5 Bac. 648.) The Court of Common Pleas, as well as that of the king's bench, exercise jurisdiction in such cases, not however under any controlling power specifically given to them over the inferior Courts but in virtue of their original jurisdiction over the subject matter in controversy.
If then we are correct with respect to the English practice, and the principles upon which it is founded, it follows pretty clearly that the Circuit Courts, whereever they possess jurisdiction over the subject matter in contest, have the right to award writs of prohibition against Courts of inferior jurisdiction.
This however, we apprehend, may be exercised either at the instance of the plaintiff or defendant. At the instance of...
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