Simpson v. Neshoba County

• Decision Date: 14 April 1930
• Docket Number: 28580
• Citation: 157 Miss. 217,127 So. 692
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court
• Parties: SIMPSON v. NESHOBA COUNTY

127 So. 692

157 Miss. 217

SIMPSON v. NESHOBA COUNTY

No. 28580

Supreme Court of Mississippi

April 14, 1930

Division B

COUNTIES. Actions. Jurisdiction. Joint defendant. County must be sued in court having jurisdiction of amount sitting at county site, though another person is named as joint defendant (Hemingway's Code 1927, sections 3980, 2378, 2379).

Under section 3980 of Hemingway's 1927 Code (section 309, Code of 1906), a county must be sued in court having jurisdiction of the amount sitting at the county site, and this section is not modified by either section 2378 of Hemingway's 1927 Code (section 2724, Code of 1906), providing that every freeholder or householder of the county shall be sued in the district in which he resides, etc., or section 2379 of Hemingway's 1927 Code (section 2725, Code of 1906) providing generally that where there are two or more defendants jointly or severally liable suit may be brought at the residence of either, etc., although there is another person sued with the county as joint defendant in the cause of action.

HON. W H. POTTER, Judge.

APPEAL from circuit court of Hinds county, First district HON. W. H. POTTER, Judge.

Suit by E. H. Simpson against Neshoba county and another. From a judgment dismissing the suit as to defendant named, plaintiff appeals. Affirmed.

Judgment affirmed.

W. H. Cox, of Jackson, for appellant.

A court of the county of the household and residence of one of the defendants, where a joint and several demand is sued on, has jurisdiction of a co-defendant county, in such case under authority of section 2725, Code of 1906; Section 2379, Hemingway's Code 1927; Section 2982, Hemingway's Code 1927; Section 2378, Hemingway's Code 1927; Section 2724, Code 1906; Sections 2374, 2725, Hemingway's Code 1906; Section 2379, Hemingway's Code 1927; Section 2725; Code 1906; State of Washington v. Pierce County, 104 Wash. 268, 176 P. 352; Putnam County v. White County, 203 S.W. 334; Code of 1906 is limited by sections 2378 and 2379, Hemingway's Code of 1927; sections 2724 and 2725, Code of 1906; State v. Board of Suprs., 141 Miss. 701, 105 So. 541.

F. W. Bradshaw and Flowers, Brown & Hester, all of Jackson, for appellee.

The fact that a county is sued as a co-defendant does not take away its privilege of venue to be sued at its county site as provided by statute, and make it amenable to process of another county where its co-defendant happens to be found.

Section 3982, Hemingway's 1927 Code; Section 3684, Hemingway's Code 1917; Section 3980, Hemingway's Code 1927; Section 3682 of Hemingway's Code 1917; 15 C. J., page 666, section 380; 7 R. C. L., page 966, section 40; Nashville v. Webb, 114 Tenn. 432, 85 S.W. 404; Phillips v. Mayor & City Council of Baltimore, 110 Md. 431, 72 A. 902, 25 L.R.A. (N.S.) 711; Montague County v. Meadows, 31 S.W. 694; Cobb v. H. C. Burt & Co., 241 S.W. 185.

OPINION

Ethridge, P. J.

This suit was instituted in the police justice court of the city of Jackson against W. W. Newsom, a resident of said city in Hinds county, and against Neshoba county, a political subdivision of the state of Mississippi. The cause of action was based upon a written assignment of the salary of W. W. Newsom to be earned in Neshoba county, Mississippi, as circuit court stenographer for the February, 1928, term of the said court; the amount was for one hundred fifty dollars. Newsom made a written assignment of this salary to the plaintiff and also gave the appellant an order on the chancery clerk of said county to pay over said pay warrant to plaintiff, Simpson, when it was issued. Newsom earned the money from the county, and the plaintiff requested payment under the provisions of the assignment and the order from Newsom, but payment was refused by Neshoba county. The assignment was not without recourse on the maker Newsom, who lived in the city of Jackson, Hinds county, Mississippi.

When the suit was filed in the police justice court the county of Neshoba was joined as codefendant in the action accruing on the above assignment. The county appeared and moved for a dismissal of said cause for want of jurisdiction of the court against it. The police justice court overruled it and rendered judgment for the plaintiff. There was an appeal to the county court where the plea was again renewed, and the county court sustained the plea and dismissed the cause of action as to Neshoba county. From the county court an appeal was taken to the circuit court of Hinds county where the judgment of the county court dismissing the suit was affirmed, from which the case is appealed here.

Section 3980 of Hemingway's 1927 Code (section 309, Code of 1906), provides: "Any county may sue and be sued by its name, and suits against the county shall be instituted in any court having jurisdiction of the amount sitting at the county site; but suit shall not be brought by the county without the authority of the board of supervisors, except as otherwise provided by law."

Section 2378 of Hemingway's 1927 Code (section 2724, Code of 1906), provides, among other things, that: "But every freeholder or householder of the county shall be sued in the district in which he resides, if there be a justice acting therein and qualified to try the suit, etc."

Section 2379 of Hemingway's 1927 Code (section 2725, Code of 1906), provides: "In suits or proceedings against two or more defendants, jointly or jointly and severally liable, it shall be lawful to bring the suit before any justice of the peace of the district wherein either of the...