Shields v. State

• Decision Date: 24 May 1889
• Citation: 6 So. 271,86 Ala. 584
• Parties: SHIELDS, JUDGE, v. STATE EX REL. LACY.
• Court: Alabama Supreme Court

6 So. 271

86 Ala. 584

SHIELDS, JUDGE, v. STATE EX REL. LACY.

Supreme Court of Alabama

May 24, 1889

Appeal form city court of Birmingham; H. A. SHARPE, Judge.

The petition was filed by the state ex rel. S. Lacy, for mandamus to have John B. Shields, judge of the county court of Walker, reinstate a certain cause on his docket.

Gunter & Sowell and Stratten & Carr, for appellant.

STONE C.J.

It admits of very grave doubt whether the deputy solicitor can make himself the relator, and, without other authority, sue out a mandamus in the name of the state. Sess. Acts 1886-87, p. 161, § 4. But we need not, and do not, decide this question. The present proceeding was an application by petition to the city court of Birmingham, praying and obtaining mandamus to the judge of the county court of Walker county, commanding him to reinstate a certain case on his docket, and to hear and determine it. The petition for the writ was filed in the city of Birmingham December 1 1888, and the judge of that court made his first order taking jurisdiction of it, December 20, 1888. At that time Jefferson county (the county in which Birmingham is situated) and Walker county were in different circuits, the former being in the Seventh circuit, and the latter in the Sixth. Code 1886, pp. 225, 226. The creation of the Tenth circuit was by an act approved December 12, 1888, (Sess. Acts p. 17.) It provided expressly "that this act shall not take effect until the judge of said circuit shall be appointed," etc. We know judicially that the judge of the Tenth circuit was not appointed until after December 20 1888. It follows that when the city court of Birmingham took jurisdiction of the petition, Walker and Jefferson counties were in different circuits. The judge of the Seventh circuit sitting in Jefferson county, could not at that time entertain jurisdiction of the present case. Dunbar v. Frazer, 78 Ala. 529. It would be a very strange result if we were to hold that the city court of Birmingham can exercise a larger common-law jurisdiction than a circuit court sitting in Jefferson county can exercise. Sess. Acts, 1884-85, p. 216. We hold that the city court of Birmingham is without jurisdiction to control, by final order or judgment, any inferior court or tribunal outside of the county of Jefferson. We are not to be understood as affirming that the judge of the city court cannot make initiatory orders in all cases in which judges...