State ex rel. Bridge v. Franklin Cty. Court of Common Pleas
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[Until this opinion appears in the Ohio Official Reports advance sheets, it may be cited as State ex rel. Bridge v. Franklin Cty. Court of Common Pleas, Slip Opinion No. 2012-Ohio3327.] NOTICE This slip opinion is subject to formal revision before it is published in an advance sheet of the Ohio Official Reports. Readers are requested to promptly notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Court of Ohio, 65 South Front Street, Columbus, Ohio 43215, of any typographical or other formal errors in the opinion, in order that corrections may be made before the opinion is published. SLIP OPINION NO. 2012-OHIO-3327 THE STATE EX REL. BRIDGE, APPELLANT, v. FRANKLIN COUNTY COURT OF COMMON PLEAS ET AL., APPELLEES. [Until this opinion appears in the Ohio Official Reports advance sheets, it may be cited as State ex rel. Bridge v. Franklin Cty. Court of Common Pleas, Slip Opinion No. 2012-Ohio-3327.] Court of appeals judgment denying request for writ of prohibition affirmed Municipal court was under no duty to dismiss the small-claims cases merely because the claims in the separate cases, when aggregated, exceeded the monetary jurisdiction of the small-claims division of the municipal court. (No. 2012-0206 Submitted July 11, 2012 Decided July 25, 2012.) APPEAL from the Court of Appeals for Franklin County, No. 11AP-140, 2011-Ohio-6561. __________________ Per Curiam. {¶ 1} We affirm the judgment of the court of appeals denying the request of appellant, William W. Bridge III, for a writ of prohibition to prevent appellees, SUPREME COURT OF OHIO Franklin County Court of Common Pleas and Judge Richard S. Sheward, from exercising jurisdiction in Speeds Elec. Serv., Inc. v. Nations Constr., L.L.C., Franklin C.P. No. 07 CVH- 07-9820. {¶ 2} Appellees do not patently and unambiguously lack jurisdiction in the underlying case, which was transferred to the common pleas court by the Franklin County Municipal Court. [W]ithout a patent and unambiguous lack of jurisdiction, a court possessed of general subject-matter jurisdiction can determine its own jurisdiction, and a party contesting that jurisdiction has an adequate remedy by appeal. State ex rel. Bell v. Pfeiffer, 131 Ohio St.3d 114, 2012-Ohio54, 961 N.E.2d 181, ¶ 19. The municipal court was under no duty to dismiss the small-claims cases, which it subsequently transferred to the common pleas court, merely because the claims in the separate cases, when aggregated, exceeded the monetary jurisdiction of the small-claims division of the municipal court. See R.C. 1925.02(A)(1) ( a small claims division established under section 1925.01 of the Revised Code has jurisdiction in civil actions for the recovery of taxes and money only, for amounts not exceeding three thousand dollars, exclusive of interest and costs ). Thus, Bridge s reliance on State ex rel. Natl. Emp. Benefit Servs., Inc. v. Cuyahoga Cty. Court of Common Pleas, 449 Ohio St.3d 49, 550 N.E.2d 941 (1990), and Lance Langan Water Jetting, Inc. v. Tiger Gen., Inc., 9th Dist. No. 05CA0018-M, 2005-Ohio-4541, which each involved a single case that the municipal court lacked jurisdiction over, is misplaced. {¶ 3} Moreover, res judicata barred Bridge from filing a successive prohibition action when he could have raised his claims in his previous prohibition action. Hughes v. Calabrese, 95 Ohio St.3d 334, 2002-Ohio-2217, 767 N.E.2d 725, ¶ 12. {¶ 4} Therefore, the court of appeals properly denied Bridge s claim for extraordinary relief in prohibition, and we affirm the court s judgment. Judgment affirmed. 2 January Term, 2012 O CONNOR, C.J., and PFEIFER, LUNDBERG STRATTON, O DONNELL, LANZINGER, CUPP, and MCGEE BROWN, JJ., concur. __________________ William W. Bridge III, pro se. ______________________ 3
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