If an action is dismissed by the court for want of jurisdiction, it has no power to determine the title to the property in controversy, or to assess damages for its value.
When an action is brought in one county which ought to have been brought in another, the court may order its transfer to the latter.
BLODGETT, J.
When the action was dismissed for want of jurisdiction, the power of the court to determine either the title or the value of the property in controversy terminated, and the subsequent acts of assessing the damages and ordering judgment therefor were consequently unauthorized and void. The plaintiffs' exceptions must therefore be sustained, but in order to prevent unnecessary litigation, and in furtherance of the more speedy administration of justice, the case is ordered to be sent to Merrimack county for trial. See Bartlett v. Lee, 60 N.H. 168. The defendant will take costs to the time of transfer.
Ordered accordingly.
STANLEY J., did not sit: the others concurred.