Southern Pacific Co. v. Superior Court

On the third day of July, 1912, in the justice's court of the sixth judicial township of the county of Kern, the San Joaquin Valley Commercial Association filed a complaint against the petitioner herein, the Southern Pacific Company, a common carrier of persons and freight within the state of California and in the county of Kern. The action was on a claim assigned to the plaintiff by one R. Pile and was for the demanded sum of $12.99. It was alleged that on February 5, 1912, plaintiff's assignor caused to be shipped by defendant as such common carrier certain described packages of freight over the line of the defendant from the city of Oakland to the city of Bakersfield; that the defendant represented *Page 241 that the freight charge for the transportation of said freight between said last named places was the sum of $28.97 which sum was then and there collected for such transportation and paid; that plaintiff's assignor subsequently discovered that the true freight charge for the transportation was the sum of $15.98, and that defendant had obtained from him the sum of $12.99 over and above the legal charge therefor. A demurrer to the complaint having been overruled and defendant…

Application for hearing in this court after decision by the district court of appeal of the second appellate district. The application for a hearing in this court must be denied. Under principles of law well settled in this state, it cannot be held that either the justice's court in Kern County or the superior court of that county exceeded its "jurisdiction" in entertaining and determining the claim of plaintiff in the action of the San Joaquin Valley Commercial Association against the Southern Pacific Company. There is nothing in either the constitution or any of the statutes of this state to warrant the conclusion that the courts may not entertain an action for the recovery of moneys paid for freight when the same were collected in violation of law. The subject-matter of such an action is within the jurisdiction of the courts. Whether the complaint filed in such an action sufficiently states a cause of action or whether the court in any way errs in the determination of other questions, arising in such an action, are matters that in no way go to the jurisdiction of the court. It would seem to be immaterial in this proceeding, whether or not it is essential to the cause of action…