Shapleigh Hardware Co., Inc. v. Brumfield

• Decision Date: 26 January 1931
• Docket Number: 28974
• Citation: 159 Miss. 175,130 So. 98,132 So. 93
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court
• Parties: SHAPLEIGH HARDWARE CO., INC., v. BRUMFIELD et al

130 So. 98

132 So. 93, 159 Miss. 175

SHAPLEIGH HARDWARE CO., INC., v. BRUMFIELD et al

No. 28974

Supreme Court of Mississippi

January 26, 1931

Division A

September 29, 1930

APPEAL from circuit court of Amite county, HON. R. L. CORBAN, Judge.

Action by the Shapleigh Hardware Company against Stanford Brumfield and another. From the judgment rendered, plaintiff appeals. Affirmed.

Affirmed. Petition dismissed.

Dabney & Dabney, of Vicksburg, for appellant.

The writ of certiorari is requested, for the purpose of correcting an error of law, and to protect interests that cannot be corrected or protected by appeal; and so should be granted.

Raussel v. Dalche (La.), 105 So. 510.

The case at bar is an exceptional case and for that reason the transcript of the brief testimony should be considered along with the record and proceedings, and this may be done in a proper case.

Federal Credit Co. v. Zippernich Gro. Co., 120 So. 173; Gulf etc. R. R. Co. v. Adams, 85 Miss. Rep. 772; Yazoo, etc., R. R. Co. v. Adams, 85 Miss. Rep. 772.

Sections 72 and 73 of the Code of 1927 have no application here to a petition for a writ of certiorari to the Supreme Court of Mississippi, but apply only to tribunals inferior to the circuit court.

There is no limitation to the time in which a petition may be filed in the Supreme Court for a writ of certiorari directed to the circuit court; that being a matter within the sound discretion of this court.

6 Cyc. p. 779.

It does not necessarily follow, because a right of appeal is given that after the expiration of the right of appeal, a certiorari should never be granted.

Duggen v. McGruder, Walk, 112.

Under a writ of certiorari from the circuit court to the county court, the return shall not as a general rule include a transcript of the evidence, but extraordinary circumstances, instances of which are shown in the books, will justify a cautious exception; and such is the case here.

Federal Credit Co. v. Zeppernich Grocery Co., 120 So. 173.

A plea in recoupment is merely a defensive and not an offensive claim.

Sterling Products Company v. Walker-Gray Lbr. Co., 95 So. 313; Machine Co. v. Thomas, 87 Miss. 395.

Where defendant files a general issue plea denying plaintiff's right of action in toto, a plea by way of set-off, cannot be filed unless a mutual indebtedness exists between the parties.

Commercial Trust Co. v. Brewer, 108 So. 425; Hoover v. Humphreys, 107 Miss. 810.

Recoupment is now generally regarded as in the nature of a cross action, the right of plaintiff to sue being admitted but defendant alleging that he has been injured by a breach of another branch of the same contract on which the action is founded and claiming to estop, cut off, or keep back so much of plaintiff's damages as will satisfy the damages which have been sustained by the defendant.

34 Cyc. 625.

The courts should be open for a fair hearing of every litigant's cause, and are not to be used in order that advantages may be attained as by a game of chance, or as if throwing the runner out while inattentive at the base in a game of baseball.

Tonkel v. Williams (Miss.), 112 So. 368; Lee v. Spikes (Miss.), 112 So. 588.

E. O. Whittington, of Liberty, for appellee.

Petitioners are estopped in bringing their motion for a writ of certiorari as more than six months has expired since rendering said judgment.

Sections 72 and 73, Code 1927; Ex parte Grubbs, 80 Miss. 741.

An appeal is now pending and the petition for certiorari is not made to complete the record in said appeal.

The word recoupment inadvertently added to a set-off plea does not destroy plea as one of set-off.

Adams Machine Co. v. Thomas, 87 Miss. 391.

Smith, C. J., Anderson, J., ON THE MERITS.

OPINION

ON THE PETITION FOR WRIT OF CERTIORARI.

Smith, C. J.

The petition alleges, in substance, that the petitioner, Shapleigh Hardware Company, sued Brumfield and Connerly in the court below on an indebtedness alleged to be due by them, and, when the case came on to be tried, it recovered nothing, but, on the contrary, a judgment was rendered against it in favor of Brumfield and Connerly on a counterclaim filed by them. The case was then brought to this court by an appeal which is now pending, and the record in the case has been filed in this court. More than six months after the rendition of the judgment this petition was filed, praying for the issuance of a writ of certiorari directing the clerk of the court below to send up the record in the case, and that it be tried and disposed of by this court on the writ of certiorari instead of on the original appeal. The petition sets forth facts, unnecessary here to disclose, which, in the opinion of the petitioner, can be availed of by it more fully in the event the case is tried here on a writ of certiorari instead of on the original appeal.

"The writ of certiorari is used for two purposes: First, as an appellate proceeding for the re-examination of some action of an inferior tribunal; second, as an auxiliary process to enable the court to obtain further information in respect to some matter already before it for adjudication." 11 C. J., p. 89, section 3. It is for the first of these purposes that the writ is here sought; in other words, the effort here is to substitute a writ of certiorari for an ordinary appeal. The Constitution does not provide the procedure for removing cases from a trial court to the supreme court, leaving the procedure therefor to be regulated wholly by the legislature from which it follows that a case can be removed from a trial court to the Supreme Court for review only in the manner provided by a statute. Dismukes v. Stokes, 41 Miss. 430; 3 C. J. 299.

Section 32, Code 1906, Hemingway's Code 1927, section 7, provides that "all cases, civil and criminal, at law and in chancery, shall be taken to the Supreme Court by appeal," and other sections of the Code designate the cases in which appeals can be taken and prescribe the method thereof. This method is exclusive of all others. Compare Federal Credit Company v. Zepernick Grocery Co., 153 Miss. 489, 120 So. 173.

Petition dismissed.

ON THE MERITS.

Anderson, J., delivered the opinion of the court.

Appellant brought this action against appellees in the circuit court of Amite county on an itemized sworn account for goods, wares and merchandise theretofore sold by appellant to appellees. The amount of the account for which recovery was sought was five hundred seventeen dollars and sixty-five cents. There was a trial before the court and a jury, resulting in a verdict and judgment for appellees against appellant in the sum of eighty dollars and fifteen cents. From that judgment appellant prosecutes this appeal.

There was exhibited with appellant's declaration the itemized sworn account. Appellees pleaded the general issue, and with it a counter affidavit, setting up that they did not owe the amount sued for, five hundred seventeen dollars and sixty-five cents, or any part thereof; that appellees had not been given credit for the payment on...