Bell v. McKinney

Citations

• 63 Miss. 187

Syllabus

<p>3. Constitutional Law. Power of legislature to confer criminal jurisdiction upon mayors.</p> <p>Under art. 1, $ 31, and art. 6, $ 24, of the constitution, which provide that the legislature may establish, in addition to the courts designated in the constitution, “ other inferior courts,” and in cases of the misdemeanors therein enumerated may dispense with the inquest of a grand jury and “ authorize prosecutions before justices of the peace or such other inferior courts” as may be so established, it is competent for the legislature to invest the mayor of an incorporated town with the criminal jurisdiction of a justice of the peace, or to declare that the mayor of such town shall be ex officio a justice of the peace in the corporate limits of the town in which he may be elected.</p> <p>2. Mato®. Criminal jurisdiction of. Act of 1876 construed.</p> <p>Under the act of 1876 (Acts of 1876, p. 33), which provides “that the mayors of all incorporated towns in this State shall be ex oficio justices of the peace in and for the several counties in which their respective towns are situated,” a mayor has no final criminal jurisdiction as a justice of the peace, except as to crimes committed within the corporate limits of the town; and as to crimes committed outside of the corporate limits, he can only act as a conservator of the peace and bind the offender over to await the action of the grand jury.</p> <p>3. Same. Liability of, for errors.</p> <p>A mayor and ex officio justice of the peace, who, having jurisdiction over the subject-matter of a criminal charge, errs in the judgment rendered against the defendant as to the character and extent of his jurisdiction, will not be held liable in damages to the defendant if he acted in good faith.</p>