State v. Lewis

• Citation: 96 Mo. 146,8 S.W. 770
• Parties: STATE ex rel. LINGENFELDER et al. v. LEWIS et al., Judges.
• Decision Date: 18 June 1888
• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Missouri

8 S.W. 770

96 Mo. 146

STATE ex rel. LINGENFELDER et al. v. LEWIS et al., Judges.

Supreme Court of Missouri.

June 18, 1888.

APPEAL — APPELLATE JURISDICTION — AMOUNT IN CONTROVERSY.

Where plaintiffs sue for $7,211, and defendants set up a counter-claim for $3,000, and the trial court find $4,720 due plaintiffs on their claim, and $2,766 due defendants on their counter-claim, and render judgment for plaintiffs for the difference between those sums, and defendants appeal, the amount in dispute is the sum found to be due plaintiffs, which being in excess of the jurisdiction of the St. Louis court of appeals, the appeal should be taken to the supreme court.

Original proceedings for writ of prohibition.

Kehr & Tittman, for petitioner. Dexter Tiffany and B. Schnurmacher, for respondents.

BRACE, J.

In this proceeding the petitioners seek to restrain by writ of prohibition the respondents, judges of the St. Louis court of appeals, from proceeding to hear and determine the case of P. J. Lingenfelder et al., Plaintiffs, against The Wainwright Brewing Company, Defendant, taken on appeal to said court by the said defendant from the St. Louis circuit court, on the ground that the amount in dispute on such appeal is beyond the jurisdiction of said appellate court. In that action the plaintiffs sued the defendant for $7,211.30, and the defendant denied plaintiffs' cause of action, and set up a counter-claim for $3,000. The trial court found for the plaintiffs on their cause of action the sum of $4,720.71, and for the defendant on its counter-claim the sum of $2,766.13, and rendered judgment in favor of plaintiff for $1,954.58, the difference between these two amounts, and the defendant appealed. The amount in dispute by which the jurisdiction of the appellate court is to be determined is not necessarily fixed by the amount of the judgment appealed from, (State v. Judges, 87 Mo. 569,) nor by the amount claimed on the cause of action sued upon, (Kerr v. Simmons, 82 Mo. 269,) but by the amount that remains in dispute between the parties on the appeal, and subject to the determination by the appellate court of the legal questions raised on the record, to ascertain which the appellate court is not confined to an examination of the judgment only, or the pleadings in the case, but may look into the whole record. Two amounts were in dispute in this case in the trial court, the amount claimed by the plaintiffs on their cause of action and the amount claimed by the...