Dick v. Wilson

By the Court,

Lord, J.:-

There should always appear sufficient on the face of the record of an inferior court to show that it had jurisdiction of the cause of which it takes cognizance. No presumptions can be indulged to aid its record for the purpose of conferring jurisdiction, but the authority to act, in every instance, must be made to affirmatively appear. (Jones, et al., v. Craford, 1 John. Cases, 20; Shivers v. Willson, 5 How. & Johns., 130; Thompson v. Multnomah County, 2 Or., 35; Wright v. Warner, 1 Douglass, [Mich.,] 384.) Whoever, therefore, sets up the judgment of an inferior court…