CIVIL PROCEDURE-JURISDICTION-AMOUNT IN CONTROVERSY IN INFERIOR COURT WHERE CAUSE OF ACTION IS SPLIT

Plaintiff, a manufacturer's agent, sued his employer in the Municipal Court, Civil Division, Washington, D. C. in two separate actions to recover commissions on his contract of employment. The two actions were consolidated for trial. At the trial defendant moved to dismiss for want of jurisdiction on the ground that this was but one cause of action and, while neither of the claims individually exceeded the jurisdictional maximum, the total claimed in both suits did exceed it. The motion to dismiss was denied, and after trial, judgments were entered for plaintiff in both actions.

Defendant appealed. The Municipal Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia held, this was but a single cause of action and therefore the total amount in controversy exceeded the jurisdictional limit. The motion to dismiss should be granted. Le John Mfg.

Co. v. Webb, (Mun. Ct. App. D.C. 1952) 91 A. (2d) 332.