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Buice v. State11/9/1999
showed, including that, for example, there were only eleven jurors and not twelve. Scott v. State, 70 Miss. 247, 11 So. 657 (1892). Whatever the right of an inmate to contest a probation revocation irregularity such as I posited above, those are not our facts.
. Finally, I acknowledge a reference to a jurisdiction problem that appears in a recent supreme court probation revocation decision. I have already discussed why I believe the circuit court's order revoking probation was not void. However, it is true that the Ellis decision states that when the revocation occurred months after probation ended, the circuit court no longer had "jurisdiction." Ellis, 98-CA-00733-SCT ( ). To read Ellis in the manner presented by the Dissent is to nullify the language from Jackson and Hester regarding absurdity. I acknowledge that the reference to an offense occurring on the last day of probation and implicitly the petition to revoke being filed later is dicta, but it also indicates a reasonable reading of the statute consistent with the manner that many other States read theirs. There must be "jurisdiction" after the end of probation for that to happen.
. "Jurisdiction" is one of those legal words with somewhat flexible meaning. It is as often used for emphasis as for precision, similar to the manner in which the word "literally" is used ("he literally chewed my head off") when in fact what is meant is the word "figuratively." Not having jurisdiction can properly be used both to refer to the loss of authority by a court to act on a specific case and to the absence of any authority to act on a specific kind of case or against a specific person. For purposes of the issues before us, I find the following meaning of "jurisdiction" to control:
In Duvall v. Duvall, 224 Miss. 546, 80 So.2d 752, the Court had occasion to explain the matter of jurisdiction. It pointed out that "Jurisdiction of the subject matter is the power of the court to hear and determine cases of the general class to which the particular case belongs. 21 C.J.S., Courts, § 23. . . . f a court has jurisdiction of the subject matter, it has the power to decide the case according to its own view of the law and the facts; . . . ." It was further pointed out that "When the court has jurisdiction of the parties and the subject matter, a judgment rendered on a complaint that does not state a good cause of action is not void and subject to collateral attack . . . . Case v. Case, 246 Miss. 750, 758-59, 150 So.2d 148, 151 (1963).
. This was reiterated in a more recent case that concluded that a judgment is void only if there is no jurisdiction of the subject matter or of the parties, or if the proceedings failed to provide due process of law. Bryant v. Walters, 493 So.2d 933, 937 (Miss.1986). Though the next precedent is a civil case, I find instructive that the supreme court has held that failure to appeal from an allegedly incorrect ruling on a statute of limitations, a matter similar to the alleged defect here, prohibits later raising that issue. Guardianship of Sugg v. Register, 704 So. 2d 56, 59 (Miss. 1997). Though the court did not use this terminology, I find that to be correct because the contested ruling was by a court with subject matter and personal jurisdiction, and even if such an error occurred it would not render the decision void. See also Kimbrough v. White, 211 Miss. 63, 75, 50 So. 2d 909, 915 (1951) (questions regarding statute of limitations had squarely been presented in an earlier suit and resolved, decided adversely, and could not be the subject of new litigation).
. I conclude that the circuit court had jurisdiction sufficient to withstand collateral attack to consider the petition to revo
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