Jones v. Charles Warner Co.

Citations

• 25 Del. 566
• 83 A. 131
• 2 Boyce 566
• 1912 Del. LEXIS 70

Syllabus

<p>1. Justices of the Peace — Jurisdiction—Authority.</p> <p>Within his statutory jurisdiction the authority of a justice of the peace is as complete as that of the Superior Court.</p> <p>2. Justices of the Peace — Conclusiveness of Judgment.</p> <p>Where, in actions within the jurisdiction of a justice of the peace, matters of account, demand, or cause of action cognizable before a justice are pleaded as a set-off and entered by the justice in his docket as required by statute, his judgment, unreversed, is conclusive, and will bar another action based on such matters.</p> <p>3. Judgment — Merger and Bar — Splitting Causes of Action or Defenses — Counterclaim.</p> <p>In actions for the price of goods, for goods sold and delivered with warranty, or for the price of work and labor done under a contract, defendant may either avail himself of any breach by plaintiff, or may sue for the damages independently, and the former suit and recovery against him will be no bar to the latter suit, unless in the former suit he availed himself of his remedy.</p> <p>4. Justices of the Peace — Jurisdiction—Consequential Damages.</p> <p>Where plaintiff purchased mortar from defendant of a quality suitable for use in the erection of a garage, but the mortar was not of unsatisfactory quality, damages purely consequential were not within the jurisdiction of the justice of the peace.</p> <p>5. Judgment — As Bar — Recoupment.</p> <p>As recoupment must defeat plaintiff’s action in whole or in part, no recovery being authorized for any excess, defendant has his election as to whether he will interpose the same in plaintiff’s action growing out of the same transaction; but, if he exercises his privilege of recoupment, he cannot thereafter maintain a separate action for such damages, or any part thereof.</p> <p>6. Justices of the Peace — Set-off—Recoupment.</p> <p>Rev. Code 1852, amended to 1893, p. 744 (14 Del. Laws, c. 93) § 8, providing that, in actions before a justice of the peace, defenda