Hadley Stephens v. Willie M. Hammersley

BOOCHEVER, Chief Justice. OPINION Hadley Stephens filed a complaint in the district court to foreclose a mechanic's and materialman's lien against real property owned by Willie and Nora Hammersley. Superior Court Judge Sanders was assigned to the district court to hear the case which, after trial, was dismissed because the Judge believed that the district court lacked jurisdiction to foreclose liens against real property. The court held that a lien foreclosure suit must be commenced in superior court. A timely appeal was taken to the superior court, which declined to rule on the appeal on the ground that a superior court Judge sitting as an intermediate appellate court Judge has no legal authority to rule on the decision of another superior court Judge. The decision of the superior court has been appealed to this court. We thus are confronted with two issues: the jurisdiction of the superior court Judge sitting on a district court case, and the jurisdiction of the district court in lien foreclosure suits.