Berghoff v. McDonald

87 Ind. 549
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 15, 1882
DocketNo. 9189
StatusPublished
Cited by34 cases

This text of 87 Ind. 549 (Berghoff v. McDonald) 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
Berghoff v. McDonald, 87 Ind. 549 (Ind. 1882).

Opinions

Franklin, C.

This action was commenced by appellee against appellant in the Whitley Circuit Court, to recover two colts, where appellant filed a plea in abatement. Appellee, after demurring to that plea, was allowed by the court to amend his complaint, making new parties defendants Adam T. Mc-Ginley and Jacob Ruch. Appellant then filed a general denial and a special plea, and a change of venue was then taken by appellant to Kosciusko county. Issues were there formed by McGinley and Nueh, and by appellee’s filing a general denial to the special paragraph of Berghoff’s answer.

The record afterwards shows that appellee’s demurrer to [551]*551■appellant’s first plea in abatement was sustained, and an exception reserved. A trial was had by jury, a general verdict was returned for appellee, with answers to interrogatories. Each of the defendants moved for judgment in his favor upon the answers to the interrogatories. The motions of McGinley ■and Ruch were sustained, and that of Berghoff overruled. Appellant then moved for a new trial, a venire de novo, and in arrest of judgment, all of which were overruled, exceptions ■reserved and judgment rendered for the defendants McGinley ■and Ruch, and for the plaintiff against Berghoff, who has appealed to this court.

Appellee has filed a motion to dismiss the appeal, for the reason that McGinley and Ruch are not made parties in the .assignment of errors. They have filed an appearance, waived ■notice, and, if they are deemed proper parties, consent that ■the cause may be submitted, heard and determined. The judgment was in their favor, and only against appellant. They have no interest in the judgment appealed from, and are neither necessary nor proper parties in this court. Easter v. Severin, 78 Ind. 540; Hammon v. Sexton, 69 Ind. 37. The motion .to dismiss the appeal is overruled. The errors assigned are:

1st. Sustaining the demürrer to the first plea in abatement.

2d. Overruling motion to strike out and quash affidavit and writ of replevin.

3d. Overruling motion for judgment on special findings.

4th. Overruling motion for a judgment on special findings .for the sorrel colt.

5th. Overruling motion for a venire de novo.

6th. Overruling motion for a new trial.

7th. Overruling motion in arrest of judgment.

8th. Sustaining appellee’s motion for judgment on the general verdict. ^

As to the first error assigned: The amendment of the complaint by making new parties defendants, and the filing of the special answer by appellant, setting up the same facts that ■were alleged in his former plea of abatement, and charging [552]*552that the new parties resident were fraudulently made defendants in order to give the court jurisdiction of the cause, took the original complaint and plea in abatement out of the case,, and they form no necessary part of the record, and should not have been embraced therein. Therefore, we do not consider whether the ruling upon the demurrer was right or' wrong. It answered no purpose in the trial of the cause.

As to the second error assigned : The record shows that the-motion was made on the part of the other defendants, McGinley and Ruch, and not on the part of appellant. He has no-interest in the rulings thereon, and can not be heard to assign the same as error; and this assigned error is not discussed by appellant in his brief, and is, therefore, waived.

As to the third error assigned: The defendants requested the court to submit to the jury forty-eight interrogatories. Answers were returned to thirty-eight of these, and to ten there were no answers. The record does not show how many or which ones of them were submitted by the court to the-jury, or why the others were not answered.

Appellant’s counsel first base their motion for judgment on these answers, upon the answer to the sixth interrogatory. That interrogatory and answer read as follows:

“6th. Did not Berghoff, before the summons issued against' him in this cause was put in the hands of the sheriff, transfer the horses to the liveryman to take to Fort Wayne? Answer. Yes.”

This answer, literally construed, would moan that the horses were not so transferred. But that is not the meaning intended by the jury or designed by the interrogators. The questions and answers are nearly all in the same form. But, giving the answer the meaning that the horses were so transferred to be taken to Fort Wayne, the answer is still not inconsistent with the general verdict for the plaintiff. The liveryman could only be regarded as the agent of Berghoff for the purpose of transferring the property, and the possession of the agent would be but the possession of the principal.

[553]*553Appellant’s counsel further insist that, according to the answers to interrogatories 1, 2, 8, 9 and 11, appellant was then, and had been for the three years last past, a resident of Fort Wayne, Allen county, Indiana, and that the court had no jurisdiction to render judgment against him, however this might have been, had there been no other defendants in the case; but there were other resident defendants, and there was an issue made as to whether they had been fraudulently made defendants for the purpose of giving the court jurisdiction. The following arc the interrogatories and answers upon this issue:

“ 14th. Did not the plaintiff know, before he made the defendants MoGinley and Ruch parties, that the horses had been taken to Fort Wayne, and that neither one of them had anything more to do with them or any control over them ? Ans. No.”

(The 15th is not answered.)

"16th. Was not the defendants McG-inley and Ruch made parties defendants by the plaintiff for the wrongful and fraudulent purpose of trying to give the court of Whitley county jurisdiction of the cause? Answer. No.”

The facts of this issue having been thus found by the jury, the fact that appellant was a non-resident of Whitley county is not inconsistent with the general verdict for the plaintiff. They further insist that the facts found by the jury show that the mortgage under which McDonald claims the property was absolutely void. We extract from appellant’s brief his claim under this head:

“The jury find on pages 46 to 50 (of record), in answer to interrogatories, as follows: ( No. 22) That McDonald held under a chattel mortgage, executed by Jacob Steinfield, February 27th, 1878, to secure (No. 23) a note due in six months, with a condition (No. 24) that Steinfield should retain the possession of the property till the note became due, and if the note was not paid promptly at maturity, that McDonald should have the right to take and keep possession of the property without any process of law, and that it should then be[554]*554come the absolute property of McDonald; (No. 25) that the property was in the possession of Steinfield at the time the mortgage was executed; (No. 26) that he kept that in suit tillTrentman levied upon it; (No. 29) that McDonald could have taken possession of it any day till that time; ( No. 51) that the only reason he did not was through humane motives, with the assurance that he should lose nothing by the act;’ (No. 32) that Steinfield has sold part of the property with the consent and concurrence of McDonald; (No.

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Bluebook (online)
87 Ind. 549, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/berghoff-v-mcdonald-ind-1882.