Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Co. v. Solorzano

156 P. 242, 21 N.M. 503
CourtNew Mexico Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 21, 1916
DocketNo. 1818
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 156 P. 242 (Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Co. v. Solorzano) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Mexico Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Co. v. Solorzano, 156 P. 242, 21 N.M. 503 (N.M. 1916).

Opinions

OPINION OF THE COURT.

ROBERTS, C. J.

This is an appeal by the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fé Railway Company, defendant below, from an order of the district court of Bernalillo County, overruling appellant's motion to set aside final judgment rendered against it in an action by appellee for damages alleged to have occurred by reason of personal injuries suffered by appellee at the hands of appellant.

The verdict of the jury was returned on the 1st day of April, 1915, in favor of the plaintiff, assessing his damages against the defendant at $775. Thereafter, on Wednesday, April 7th, appellant filed a motion for a new trial. On the 12th day of April, the court, without taking any action on said'motion or upon the motion filed by appellee to strike the same because it had not been filed in time, rendered final judgment in said cause in favor of appellee, in accordance -with the verdict. Two days thereafter appellant filed its motion to set aside the judgment on the ground that at the time said judgment was entered there was pending and undisposed of in said cause a motion for new trial, and that said final judgment contained a finding of the court that said motion for new trial had not been filed within the time required by law, when, as a matter of fact, less than five judicial days had expired at the time said motion for a new trial was filed. This motion was overruled by the court, and it is the action of the court in overruling this motion which appellant desires to have reviewed on this appeal. Appellee has filed a motion to dismiss the appeal on various grounds, based principally. on the insufficiency of the transcript of record, which appellant has filed in this court. Appellant has filed a brief on the merits, and appellee likewise has fully discussed the merits of the appeal, and as the cause must be affirmed on the merits, we will not consider the various grounds presented by appellee for a dismissal.

By subsection 160 of section 4226, Code 1915, it is provided :

“All motions for new trials in cases tried by juries shall be filed during the term of court at which the case is tried, and within five days after the rendition of the verdict or finding.”

The verdict was returned on Thursday, and the motion for new trial was filed on the first Wednesday thereafter; lienee more than 5 days had elapsed when the motion was filed. Appellant, however, contends that there is a' well-settled rule of law, independent of any statute, that when a limitation of time is fixed within which a particular act may or may not be done, if the time limited exceeds a week, an intervening Sunday is included in the computation, but if the time limited is less than a week, such intervening Sunday is excluded. In support of this rule the following authorities are cited: Clerk’s Savings Bank v. Thomas, 2 Mo. App. 367; National Bank v. Williams, 46 Mo. 17; Lewis v. Schwenn, 15 Mo. App. 342; Holsi v. Yokel, 57 Mo. App. 622; State v. Harris, 121 Mo. 445, 26 S. W. 558; Cattell v. Dispatch Publishing Co., 88 Mo. 356; Long v. Hawkins, 178 Mo. 103, 77 S. W. 77; State v. McGowan, 62 Mo. App. 625; 14 Enc. P. & P. 866; State v. Michel, 52 La. Ann. 936, 27 South. 565, 49 L. R. A. 226, 78 Am. St. Rep. 364; Haley v. Young, 134 Mass. 366; Anonymous, 2 Hill (N. Y.) 375; Thayer v. Felt, 4 Pick. (Mass.) 354; Hannum v. Tourtellott, 10 Allen (Mass.) 494; Cunningham v. Mahan, 112 Mass. 58, 78 Am. St. Rep. 378, note; Meng v. Winkleman, 43 Wis. 41; Ridgley v. State, 7 Wis. 661; Penniman v. Cole, 8 Metc. (Mass.) 496; Neal v. Crew, 12 Ga. 93.

That such was the rule at common law is apparent from an examination of the above authorities, but in this state we have a statute (section 5424, Code 1915) which prescribes certain rules for construing statutes, by the seventh subdivisión of which it is provided as follows:

“In computing time the first day shall he excluded and the last included, unless the last falls on Sunday, in which case the time prescribed shall he extended so as to include the whole of the following Monday.”

This statute, we think, changes the common-law rule, and requires the court to include intervening Sundays in computing time, and the statute itself provides the only case wherein Sunday is to be excluded. This being’ true, appellant’s motion was not filed within the time required; hence the court properly disregarded it and entered judgment in favor of appellee. Our conclusion is supported by all the authorities passing upon the question under similar statutes, which have been called to our attention, with the exception of the Missouri cases hereinafter discussed.

In the case of Svea Ins. Co. v. McFarland, 7 Ariz. 131, 60 Pac. 936, the court said:

“It is argued hy counsel for plaintiff in error that the judgment being rendered on Saturday, the 8th, and the next day being Sunday, they were allowed Monday and Tuesday in which to file a motion for a new trial; and they cite cases from some states which have a rule that, where a statute requires a thing to be done within a short period of time, if Sunday or a holiday comes within that period it is excluded. No such rule exists in Arizona. It is fixed by statute to the contrary. Paragraph 920, Rev. St. (a part of the same title in which the practice in regard to motions for new trial is prescribed), provides: ‘The time in which any act provided by law is to be done is to be computed by excluding the first day and including the last day, unless the last day is a holi: day, and then it is also excluded.’ If the Legislature had intended to exclude an intermediate holiday it would have done so.”

In the ease of Van Laer v. Kansas Trip Hammer Brick Works, 56 Kan. 545, 43 Pac. 1134, the Supreme Court of Kansas said:

“The judgment was rendered on Saturday, however, and the plaintiffs in error contend that the Sunday following should be excluded from the computation, thús allowing three court days after the date of the judgment, for filing the motions. This would be allowable in Missouri, Georgia, and perhaps some other states. Bank v. Williams, 46 Mo. 17; Cattell v. Publishing Co., 88 Mo. 356; Neal v. Crew, 12 Ga. 93. Our statute governing the subject (Civ. Code, § 722) enacts that ‘the time within which an act is to be done shall be computed by excluding the first day and including the last; if the last day be Sunday it shall be excluded.’ Under identical statutes in New York and Indiana, it has been held that, while Sunday is excluded if the last day, yet it is included if an intervening day. Taylor v. Corbiere, 8 How. Prac. [N. Y.] 385, and cases cited; English v. Dickey, 128 Ind. 174, 182, 27 N. E. 495 [13 L. R. A. 40]. We hold the latter to be the true construction of our statute, and, although not expressly decided, it has been assumed by the courts, and accepted generally by the profession, as the correct interpretation. The Legislature, having Sunday in mind, provided for its exclusion when the last day, and it is presumable that its inclusion was intended when an intervening day.”

While the question has never been heretofore expressly decided in this jurisdiction, the territorial Supreme Court, in the case of Schofield v. Slaughter, 9 N. M. 422, 54 Pac. 757, in discussing the statute which required a motion for new trial to be filed within five days, said:

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156 P. 242, 21 N.M. 503, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/atchison-topeka-santa-fe-railway-co-v-solorzano-nm-1916.