Page:Borden v. State ex rel. Robinson.pdf/25

Rh the ground that the obligation sought to be enforced was contracted within the county; and in others, upon the ground that property had been left in the county under the protection of the laws.

But apart from these general considerations there would seem to be others; touching the nature of the powers of a superior court and the protection of the judges of these courts, which is said by Ch. J. to be "absolute and universal," (Wilter vs. Seare 2 Wm. Black. R. 1141) that are more conclusive. We have already alluded to the difference between the powers of superior and inferior courts, and shown that those of the latter were essentially limited powers and the former general powers. But the nature of these general powers will be more fully developed by the definitions respectively of superior and inferior courts given by the supreme court of the United States in the case of Grignon's Lessee vs. Astor et al. (2 Howard U. S. R. 341); in which case the county court of Brown county in the then territory of Michigan was held to be of the former class and its proceedings, when collaterally assailed, held valid in ordering the sale of lands of an intestate, without notice either actual or constructive to the parties in interest, although the statute, under which it proceeded, in express terms enacted that, before the court should pass upon the representation of the necessity to sell, "it shall order due notice to be given to all parties or their guardians to show cause against the granting of the license to sell," and providing also publication in a newspaper in case any of the parties were non-residents. The following are the definitions alluded to above: "The true line of distinction between courts whose decisions are conclusive, if not removed to an appellate court, and those whose proceedings are nullities if their jurisdiction does not appear on their face, is this: a court which is competent by its constitution to decide on its own jurisdiction and to exercise it to a final judgment without setting forth in their proceedings the facts and evidence on which it is rendered, whose record is absolute verity, not to be impugned by averment or proof to the contrary, is of the first description: there can be