McCartey v.
Kittrell &
Purnell.
Opinion of the
Court.
J. H.
McCartey et al. v. Kittrell & Purnell
Judgment.
Form and entry. Names of parties.
A judgment is operative against all of the parties to the action
even where the names are incorrectly given in the judgment, or are
altogether omitted from it; and who are parties is to be determined from
all of the pleadings, process, and proceedings in the case.
Error to the Circuit Court of Choctaw County.
Hon. William Cothran, Judge
A statement of the case appears in the opinion of the court.
1. It was error in the Circuit Court to proceed to judgment, because
the action was instituted in the partnership name of the plaintiffs.
Parties cannot sue or be sued in their partnership name. Blackwell v. Reid &
Co., 41 Miss. 102.
When the action is brought in the Circuit Court, the objection may be
raised by the defendant on demurrer to the plaintiff's declaration. But in a
justice's court the plaintiff's claim is made by "lodging with the justice the
evidence of debt," and having a summons issued. The pleadings on the part of the
defendant, except when he has a claim or demand against the plaintiff, are oral,
and he can plead payment, statue of limitations, or any other matter orally, and
make any defense of law or fact without written pleadings. Theefore the failure
of the plaintiffs in error to file a written demurrer
does not prevent this court from reversing the judgment. A defendant in a
justice's court, or in the Circuit Court on appeal, is not required to make his
demurrer matter of record, and is nt affected by section 622 of the Code of
1871.
2. The judgment is irregular and voidable because it does not
describe the parties plaintiff with sufficient certainty. Rhea v. Rawlings, 3
Cranch C. Ct. 256. In that case a judgment in favor of "Rawlings & Son" was
held to be bad. See, also Barney v. The Coporation, 1 Cranch C. Ct. 248;
Ordinary v. McClure, 1 Bailey, 7; Stowers v. Milledge, 1 Iowa, 150; Barrett v.
Gornigan, 16 Iowa, 47; Church v. Crossman, 41 Iowa, 373; Tornbeckbee Bank v.
Strong's Executors, 1 Stew. & P. 187.
A judgment cannot be pleaded as a bar to a second recovery unless there
be an identity of parties. Freem. on Judg., sec. 252. There can be no estopped
by judgment unless both parties can be bound thereby. Its operation must be
mutual, Ib., sec. 159. If the defendants below had recovered judgment on their
off-set against "Kittrell & Purnell," the latter would not have been bound
thereby, and the plaintiffs below cannot be benefited by any judgment
which would not have bound them if it had gone against them.
For these errors the judgment should be reversed.
R. F. Holloway, for the defendant in error, submitted the case, but filed
not brief.
Chalmers, J., delivered the opinion of the court.
The only error assigned is that in the judgment of the Circuit
court
there was a failure to recite the names of the individual members composing of
the firm of Kitrell & Purnell, in whose favor the judgment was rendered. The
case originated in the Magistrate's Court, and there were no written pleadings;
but in the judgment of the Magistrate's Court the infividual names of the
members of the firm were given. They were given, also, in the affidavit for
appeal in the appeal bond, and in the magistrate's certificate to the transcript
sent up to the Circuit Court. There was no objection made in the Circuit
Court, nor any suggestions that the names thus given were not the true names of
the plaintiffs. A judgment isf operative for or against all who were really
parties to the suit, though their names be incorrectly given or wholly omitted
from it. Who are parties is to be determined by all the pleadings, process, and
proceedings in the case. Wilson v. Nance, 11 Humph. 189.
Judgment affirmed.