Baldridge v. State ex rel. Nicholson

69 Ind. 166
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 15, 1879
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 69 Ind. 166 (Baldridge v. State ex rel. Nicholson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Baldridge v. State ex rel. Nicholson, 69 Ind. 166 (Ind. 1879).

Opinion

Howk, C. J.

In this action, the appellee’s relator, as guardian of Joseph R. Baldridge, a minor, sued the appellants upon a bond given by the appellant Rankin Baldridge, a former guardian of the same minor. In his complaint, the relator assigned the following breaches of the condition of said bond, to wit:

1. That said Rankin Baldridge, as guardian, failed and neglected to make any inventory of the estate of his said ward, which came into his hands.

[168]*1682. That although the said Baldridge, as such guardian, had received moneys- belonging to his ward’s estate, amounting »to $6,000, he did not safely keep and invest the same for the benefit of said ward, but mingled the same with his own moneys, and used and converted the same to his own use.

3. That although the said Baldridge, as such guardian, ' on the 6th day of February, 1878, filed in the Wayne Circuit Court his verified report, showing that he was, as he •was in fact, then and there chargeable, as such guardian, with the sum of $5,190.52, and although the said court then and there found that he was so chargeable, as such .guardian,.with the said sum, with interest.thereon at the rate of ten per cent, per annum from said date, and ordered him to pay the same over to the relator as his successor in said trust, as guardian of said ward, yet he had wholly failed and neglected to pay over the same, or any part thereof, and the same remained due and wholly unpaid. Wherefore, etc.

The appellant Caleb B. Jackson separately answered in eight paragraphs, of -which the first was a general denial, the second alleged payment in full before this suit was brought^ and each of the remaining six paragraphs stated special matter by way of defence. To each of the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth paragraphs of said answer, the relator’s demurrers, for the want of'facts, were sustained by the court, and to these decisions the said Jackson excepted. To the second paragrapl i said answer, the relator replied by a general denial.

The appellant Baldridge separately answered the relator’s complaint by a general denial thereof and a plea of payment.

The cause was tried by a jury, and a general verdict was returned for the appellee’s relator, assessing his damages in the sum of $5,765.07. With their general verdict, the [169]*169jury also returned their special findings on particular questions of fact, submitted to them by the court, as follows:

“ 1. How much of the amount found for plaintiff herein is for principal alone ?

“ Answer by jury. $5,190.52.

“ 2. Iiow much of the amount found for the plaintiff herein is for interest alone, and at what per cent, per annum ?

“ Answer by jury. $50.46; interest at ten per cent, per annum. ”

The appellant Caleb B. Jackson separately moved the court for a new trial, which motion was overruled, and to this decision he excepted. Judgment was rendered for the appellee’s relator, on the general verdict, for the damages assessed therein and his costs.

The appellants have assigned, as errors, the decision of the circuit court in sustaining the relator’s demurrers to the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth paragraphs of the separate answer of the appellant Caleb B. Jackson, and in overruling his motion for a new trial, and in rendering judgment against the appellants.

Of these alleged errors, all with one exception have been practically waived, under the established practice of this court, by the failure of the appellants’ counsel to present or discuss any question arising thereunder, in their brief of this cause. The one excepted error, upon which the appellants’ counsel apparently rely for a reversal of the judgment below, is the overruling of the motion of the appellant Jackson for a new trial. In this motion, the following causes were assigned for such new trial:

1. The verdict of the jury was contrary to law;

2. The verdict was contrary to the evidence :

3. The verdict of the jury was contrary to the law and the evidence;

[170]*1704. Error of the court in giving the jury a certain instruction ;

5. Error of the court in refusing to give the jury a certain instruction, at the -request of the appellant Jack son;

6. The damages assessed by the jury were excessive;

7. Error of the court in admitting in evidence the guardian’s bond in suit;

8. Error of the court in admitting in evidence a certain entry on the order-book of the court;

9. Error of the court in admission in evidence of a certain account current of the appellant Baldridge as guardian.

In our examination of the questions which arise under the alleged error of the court in overruling the motion for a new trial, we will limit ourselves to the consideration and decision of those questions only which the appellants’ counsel have presented and discussed in their able and exhaustive brief of this cause. The first point made by counsel, in argument, is that the general verdict of the jury, in this case, was contrary to the evidence. In assigning this cause for a new trial, we suppose that the appellants intended to assign, as such cause, that the verdict was not sustained by sufficient evidence. This is the mode of expression used in the sixth statutory cause for a new trial; and we will be pardoned, we trust, for expressing the opinion that the language used by the appellants’ counsel, in assigning the cause for a new trial, is certainly no improvement on the language of the statute.

It is claimed by the appellants’ counsel, as we understand their argument, that the verdict was contrary to the evidence, or rather that there was no sufficient evidence to sustain the verdict, in this, that the relator had omitted to prove by direct, positive and affirmative evidence, that the appellant Baldridge, at the termination of his said guardianship, had failed, neglected and refused to pay over the [171]*171sum of money, or any part thereof, admitted by him and found by the court to be in his hands and belonging to the ward’s estate, to his successor in said trust, the appellee’s relator, in compliance with the order of said court. It seems to us, that such omitted evidence was wholly unnecessary in this case, and that, in the absence of any proof whatever in support of the appellants’ pleas of payment, the jury were fully warranted, upon the evidence in the record, in finding and returning their general verdict in favor of the relator. The evidence showed, that on the 6th day of February, 1878, the said Rankin Baldridge, as such guardian, presented to the court his account current, duly verified, of his debits and credits with his ward’s estate, wherein he showed that, as such guardian, he was justly chargeable with said balance of $5,190.52, belonging to said ward; and that he, the said Rankin Baldridge, was then insolvent and had been adjudged a bankrupt in January, 1878, and had no money wherewith to pay his attorneys a reasonable fee for preparing said account current, in said guardianship.

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Bluebook (online)
69 Ind. 166, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/baldridge-v-state-ex-rel-nicholson-ind-1879.