Stidhams v. McPherson

Almost seventy-five years ago this Court decided that a party by submitting to a decision against himself in the District Court was not thereby precluded from appealing that decision to the Common Pleas Division of this Court, where in appropriate circumstances he was entitled to a jury trial and in all events to a trial de novo. Lavelle v. Kimball, 18 R. I. 786, 31 A. 166 (1895). The creation of the Superior Court in 1905 and its succession to the jurisdiction formerly exercised by the Common Pleas Division did not alter the Lavelle rule. Dorney v. Ives, 36 R. I. 276, 90 A. 164 (1914). And…