Fatchell v. St. Louis & Iron Mountain Railroad

The plaintiff commenced, before a justice of the peace, a suit in the nature of an action on the case for an injury to his premises caused by the construction of a culvert. The only question presented in the record is whether the justice had jurisdiction of the case.

The thirty-eighth section of the act concerning railroad corporations declares that “ all existing railroad corporations shall be exempt from the jurisdiction of justices’ courts, except as in this act and in their own charters provided.” (R. C. 1855, p. 430.) That act imposes penalties on railroad companies for doing or omitting…