Anderson v. Messenger

208 F. 75, 11 Ohio Law Rep. 411, 1913 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1194
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Ohio
DecidedFebruary 26, 1913
DocketNo. 1,897
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 208 F. 75 (Anderson v. Messenger) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Ohio primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Anderson v. Messenger, 208 F. 75, 11 Ohio Law Rep. 411, 1913 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1194 (N.D. Ohio 1913).

Opinion

KILLITS, District Judge.

This case is before the court on three motions for judgment against the surety on appeal and cost bonds. By consent, the motion as to the cost bond is allowed. The controversy arises upon appeal bonds in the sums of $250 and $500, respectively.

In order to understand the exact point raised, this short history of the case is necessary to be stated: Anderson, a resident of Tennessee, began an action in ejectment against Messenger to recover property in this district. 146 Fed. 929, 77 C. C. A. 179, 7 L. R. A. (N. S.) 1094; 158 Fed. 250, 85 C. C. A. 468; 225 U. S. 436, 32 Sup. Ct. 739, 56 D. Ed. 1152. The action in the Circuit Court of this division was determined in favor of the defendant Messenger, whereupon Anderson filed his bond, with the American Bonding Company as surety, on August 26, 1905, in the sum of $250, reciting the judgment against him and the fact that a writ of error had been allowed, with this condition in the bond:

“That if the said Peter Anderson shall prosecute said writ of error to effect and answer all damages and costs if he fail to make the said appeal good, then the above obligation to be void.”

The Circuit Court of Appeals, considering the writ of error, reversed the Circuit Court and remanded the case for a new trial. Upon a second trial, with additional facts, the defendant Messenger again succeeded, whereupon a second writ of error was allowed, and Anderson filed, with the American Bonding Company as surety, a second bond in the sum of $500, dated March 21, 1907, with the condition in precisely the same language as that quoted of the first bond. The Circuit Court of Appeals, on this second writ of error, again reversed the Circuit Court and returned the case for a new trial with instructions, following which the Circuit Court rendered a decree in favor of Anderson. Error was prosecuted by Messenger, and in the Circuit Court ■of Appeals this last judgment of the Circuit Court was affirmed. The Supreme Court, on a writ of certiorari allowed to the Circuit Court of Appeals, however, reversed both lower courts and remanded the case to the Circuit (now District) Court for this district with such construe[77]*77tion of the issues involved as required a final judgment in favor of Messenger, which has been entered.

Messenger now insists that the conditions of the two appeal bonds have been broken and that he is entitled to recover against the surety on them for the costs, which greatly exceed their aggregate amount.

[1] The question turns on the proper construction to be given to section 1000, United States Compiled Statutes, which reads:

“livery justice or judge signing a citation on any writ ot error, shall, except in eases brought up by the United Slates or by direction of any department of the government, take good and sufficient security that the plaintiff in error or the appellant shall prosecute his writ or appeal to effect, and, if he fail to make his plea good, shall answer all damages and costs, where the writ is a supersedeas and stays execution, or all costs only where it is not a supersedeas as aforesaid.”

There is no question of supersedeas in this case. The bonds affect only the costs.

In our judgment, the motions are not well taken. The authorities cited, with the exception of two, refer to cases in which the appeal or petition in error was one of a succession of steps leading to a final judgment. For instance, if, in this case, after the first reversal in the Circuit Court of Appeals, Messenger had succeeded in getting a hearing on certiorari before the Supreme Court and had obtained a reversal of the judgment of the Circuit Court of Appeals, there would be no question but that the first bond would have been available to him to the extent of its face to meet the costs, for the reason that the case in the Supreme Court would then have been but a transfer of the writ of error made in the Circuit Court of Appeals for which the bond stood, and the reversal by the Supreme Court would have amounted to the failure of Anderson to have prosecuted his writ of error to effect.

The two cases in which a bond not in the direct line of the course of procedure in a case lias been allowed to be effective are the cases of Humerton v. Hay, 65 N. Y. 380, and Lowry v. Tew, 25 Hun (N. Y.) 257. In each of these cases the course of the case was quite like the situation before us, but the decision of the court with reference to the effectiveness of the bonds seems in each case to have depended upon the wording of the statute. In the Lowry Case, for instance, the plaintiff recovered a judgment in a justice court, the defendant appealed to the county court for a new trial and procured the bond to stay execution; the condition being “that if judgment be rendered against the appellant on said appeal and execution be returned unsatisfied in whole or in part” lie would pay the amount unsatisfied. On the hearing of the appeal in the county court a new trial was ordered to be had before the same justice who rendered the first judgment. On this new trial the plaintiff again recovered, and, on the defendant’s appeal to the county court, that judgment was affirmed. The court say:

“The ground taken by the respondent, and on which it is understood the case was disposed of at the circuit, is that as the judgment appealed from was not affirmed, hut a new trial was granted, the obligation of the undertaking was at an end, and did not extend to the judgment recovered upon [78]*78the new trial. That construction we think does not accord with the spirit or letter of the undertaking. The object of the appellant in bringing the appeal was to obtain a new trial before the same justice. The granting of a new trial did not discharge the surety, for until the new trial was had the result of the appeal was undetermined. The judgment recovered upon the new trial, and subsequently affirmed by the county court, was the judgment rendered on said appeal. In other words, the condition of the undertaking refers to the final determination of the appeal.”

This case was decided under the New York statute, whose language, referring to the condition of the bond, is in the terms of the bond which we have quoted. \

In the case of Humerton v. Hay, 65 N. Y. on page 384, supra, per Judge Dwight, the distinction which we are making here, it seems to us, is clearly made. He says (speaking of a condition identical with that in the case of Dowry v. Tew):

“It will be observed that the language of this section is very broad. It refers both to the judgment and the execution to be issued thereon. It manifestly looks to the final judgment in the cause. In this respect, it is much more comprehensive in its terms than the 335th section, which simjfiy provides that if the judgment appealed from be affirmed, etc., the appellant will pay the amount of the judgment. It might plausibly be urged in that case that the undertaking would not cover a series of new trials. In the case at bar, the defendant covenanted for the final result of the action and the payment of the debt, if an execution was returned unsatisfied. It is not required that any' particular judgment be affirmed. The condition simply is that ‘if judgment be rendered,’ etc. This plainly means any final judgment which may be rendered in the cause, upon which an execution may issue.”

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Montgomery v. American Employers' Ins.
22 F. Supp. 476 (D. Delaware, 1938)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
208 F. 75, 11 Ohio Law Rep. 411, 1913 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1194, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/anderson-v-messenger-ohnd-1913.