Schofield v. Powell

Citations

• 5 Alaska 373

Syllabus

<p>1. Justices oe the Peace <&wkey;>122(5), 130—Judgment—Pleading.</p> <p>Tbe plaintiff began a suit in justice court against tbe defendant herein, made personal service of the summons, and on default took judgment as demanded. After the entry of the judgment plaintiff discovered that statutory notice had not been given to defendant, whereupon he moved the justice court to cancel, annul, vacate, and set aside the judgment so entered as void, and to dismiss the action without prejudice. The justice sustained the motion and entered an order canceling, vacating, and setting aside the judgment as void, and dismissed the action for want of jurisdiction over the person of the defendant. Plaintiff .immediately began another action before the same justice, in the same form, against the same defendant, on the same cause of action. The defendant tendered a plea in bar to the second suit. Held, the justice had no power or authority to vacate or annul the judgment entered in the first suit, and that judgment is a bar to the judgment demanded in the second suit.</p> <p>2. Courts <&wkey;175—Justices oe the Peaces &wkey;>122(5)—Jurisdiction.</p> <p>It is a universal rule with regard to courts of inferior jurisdiction, such as commissioners’ courts here and justice of the peace courts, that they have no powers except those given them by statute. Neither the statutes of Alaska, nor of Congress, give power to the commissioner’s court or to a justice of the peace to set aside or vacate a judgment which it has once entered, and this applies as well to default judgments as to others.</p> <p>(gz^>See same topic & KEY-NUMBER in all Key-Numbered Digests & Indexes</p>