American Surety Co. v. State ex rel. Souers

98 N.E. 829, 50 Ind. App. 475, 1912 Ind. App. LEXIS 58
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedMay 28, 1912
DocketNo. 7,624
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 98 N.E. 829 (American Surety Co. v. State ex rel. Souers) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
American Surety Co. v. State ex rel. Souers, 98 N.E. 829, 50 Ind. App. 475, 1912 Ind. App. LEXIS 58 (Ind. Ct. App. 1912).

Opinion

Hottel, C. J.

— Appellee Retta Souers is the wife, and the other appellees are the children of Thomas Souers, and this action was brought by the State, with said appellees as relators, to recover on a saloon-keeper’s bond, executed by John S. Brown as principal and appellant as surety.

The action is based on §8355 Burns 1908, §5323 R. S. 1881, and the breach or violation of duty by the principal of the bond relied on, as creating the liability alleged in the complaint, is the unlawful sale of liquor to said Thomas Souers at a time when he was intoxicated, resulting in a loss to the relators of their means of support.

A trial by jury resulted in a verdict for appellees in the sum of $1,500.

[480]*480The complaint avers, in substance, that, as a result of said unlawful sale to said Souers, when he was in said intoxicated condition, he became so extremely intoxicated that he was irritable, crazed and frenzied, and while in such condition engaged in a quarrel with Benjamin Thomas, and shot and killed him; that on account of such killing said Souers was indicted, tried, convicted and sent to the state prison, and that the relators were thus deprived of their means of support.

It is conceded by appellant that the complaint follows that of Homire v. Halfman (1901), 156 Ind. 470, 60 N. E. 154, and as no objection to its sufficiency is urged, we need give it no further notice.

The first question presented by this appeal is the alleged error of the trial court in sustaining a demurrer to appellant’s first plea in abatement. The substance of this plea is that at the time appellees commenced this action, appellee Retta Souers filed a suit on a similar bond executed by another saloon-keeper, viz., Harvey Gill, as principal, and appellant as surety thereon, and therein alleged the same grounds for recovery which form the basis of the complaint at bar; that said suit was venued to the Wells Circuit Court, and was there pending at the time this cause came up for trial.

1. A plea in abatement to be sufficient must contain “the utmost fullness and particularity of statement, as well as the highest attainable accuracy and precision, leaving, on the one hand, nothing to be supplied by intendment or construction; and on the other, no supposable special answer unobviated.” Needham v. Wright (1895), 140 Ind. 190, 193, 194, 39 N. E. 510. See, also, Board, etc., v. Lafayette, etc., R. Co. (1875), 50 Ind. 85, 117; Kelley v. State (1876), 53 Ind. 311, 312; 1 Am. and Eng. Ency. Law 11 and notes; Lechner v. Strauss (1912), ante 414, 98 N. E. 444.

[481]*4812. [480]*480When such plea is based on the ground of another action, [481]*481it must show clearly that the suit pending is for the identical cause of action as that involved in the cause which is sought to he abated, and that it is between the same parties or their privies. Needham v. Wright, supra; Bryan v. Scholl (1887), 109 Ind. 367, 10 N. E. 107; Praxton v. Vincennes Mfg. Co. (1898), 20 Ind. App. 253, 50 N. E. 583.

3. Although this is a suit on a bond, the basis of the action sounds in tort, and appellees were entitled to proceed against all the wrongdoers, either jointly or separately, and where separate actions are brought, the same may be prosecuted concurrently until judgment has been reached, but one satisfaction is a bar to further proceedings on the same cause of action. Cleveland, etc., 22. Co. v. Gossett (1909), 172 Ind. 525, 535, 87 N. E. 723; Cleveland, etc., R. Co. v. Hilligoss (1908), 171 Ind. 417, 423, 86 N. E. 485, 131 Am. St. 258; Indianapolis Traction, etc., Co. v. Holtzclaw (1907), 40 Ind. App. 311, 81 N. E. 1084.

4. Appellant’s liability as surety is grounded in Brown’s lia■bility as principal, and the case at bar is prosecuted by additional plaintiffs on a different bond, and is based on a different sale of liquor made at a different time and place from that of the action against Gill. The Gill action could not, therefore, serve to abate the present action as to either Brown or appellant.

For the reasons indicated, the demurrer to the first plea in abatement was properly sustained, as was also the demurrer .to appellant’s third paragraph of answer, which presented the same defense as a bar to this action.

5. A second plea in abatement was filed by appellant, the substance of the averments of which, in brief, was that subsequent to the occurrence of the matters alleged in appellees’ complaint, the voters of Huntington county, at a special election under the county local option law (Acts 1908 [s. s.] p. 4), voted to prohibit the sale of intoxica[482]*482ting liquors as a beverage in said county; “that by reason of such election and by reason of the act of said special session of 1908 of the General Assembly, the former law of this State regarding the regulating and issuing of licenses * * * was repealed and the said act of the special session of 1908 contained no clause saving pending litigation or providing for a continuance of the act of 1875 * * * for any purpose whatever. ’ ’

The ruling of the court below in sustaining a demurrer to this plea presents the second error relied on.

Appellant urges that the local option law of 1908, supra, repealed or suspended the act of 1875 (Acts 1875 [s. s.] p. 55, §8355 Burns 1908), under which the bond sued on was issued, and that any suit based on said bond would abate because of the repeal or suspension of the law.

Section 12 of said act of 1908 provides: “Nothing contained in the provisions of this act shall affect, amend, repeal or alter in any way the act entitled ‘An act to better regulate and restrict the sale of intoxicating, * * *' liquors,’ ***** approved March 11, 1895, nor the act to amend section nine of the above mentioned act approved February 15, 1905, nor of any law or ordinance which prohibits throughout any township, ward or any residence district the sale of intoxicating liquors, but this act shall be deemed additional and supplemental thereto.” Although this §12 does not expressly mention the act of 1875 as among the acts expressly saved from repeal yet the closing language of said section indicates that the intention of the legislature was that the act of 1908 should be additional and supplemental to the existing law on the same subject.

But assuming, without deciding, that the act of 1908, supra, had the effect of repealing the act of 1875, stipra, it in noway deprived appellees of their right to maintain this action.

Section 248 Burns 1908, §248 R. S. 1881, provides that “the repeal of any statute shall not have the effect to release [483]*483or extinguish any penalty, forfeiture, or liability incurred under such statute, unless the repealing act shall so expressly provide; and such statute shall be treated as still remaining in force for the purpose'of sustaining any proper action or prosecution for the enforcement of such penalty, forfeiture, or liability. ”

Appellant relies on the case of Taylor v. Strayer (1906), 167 Ind. 23, 78 N. E. 236, 119 Am. St.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
98 N.E. 829, 50 Ind. App. 475, 1912 Ind. App. LEXIS 58, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/american-surety-co-v-state-ex-rel-souers-indctapp-1912.