Campana v. District Court of Salt Lake County

251 P. 26, 68 Utah 517, 1926 Utah LEXIS 112
CourtUtah Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 10, 1926
DocketNo. 4470.
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 251 P. 26 (Campana v. District Court of Salt Lake County) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Utah Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Campana v. District Court of Salt Lake County, 251 P. 26, 68 Utah 517, 1926 Utah LEXIS 112 (Utah 1926).

Opinion

*518 FRICK, J.

The plaintiff made application to this court for an alternative writ of mandate. The writ was duly issued requiring the district court of Salt Lake county to assume jurisdiction of a certain appeal and to proceed therewith in the regular course or to show cause why it refused to do so. The defendants named in the title appeared and filed an answer, and the cause was submitted upon plaintiff’s application and the answer thereto.

The facts are practically all agreed to. At all events, there is no dispute regarding any material fact. The facts relating to this proceeding are that on the 18th day of October, 1925, one Ellis C. Freed, a defendant therein, recovered judgment in the city court of Salt Lake City against the plaintiff herein; that on the 17th day of November, 1925, an execution was duly issued upon said judgment which was served upon the wife of the plaintiff herein and payment of the judgment was demanded from her. The record is silent as to whether plaintiff had notice or knowledge of the issuance of said execution. It further was made to appear that on the 24th day of February, 1926, an affidavit was duly filed in the said court wherein it was set forth that on the day aforesaid said Freed obtained judgment against the plaintiff herein for $462.65 and for $4.20 costs, and that an execution had been issued and returned by the sheriff unsatisfied; that pursuant to said affidavit the said court issued an order requiring the plaintiff here, who was the defendant in the action aforesaid, to appear before said court on the 1st day of March, 1926, at 10 o’clock a. m. “to answer concerning his property,” etc.; that true copies of the order and affidavit aforesaid were duly served on the plaintiff here on the-26th day of February, 1926; that no notice of the entry of the judgment aforesaid was ever served on the plaintiff herein; that the plaintiff, desiring to appeal from the judgment aforesaid to the district court of Salt Lake county, on the 22nd day of May, 1926, duly served his notice of appeal *519 on the plaintiff in said action, together with his undertaking on appeal staying execution, and appealed the case to the district court of Salt Lake county; that the undertaking was duly approved by the said court on the 22nd day of May, 1926; that on the 2nd day of June, 1926, said Freed, as plaintiff in the action aforesaid, filed a motion to dismiss the appeal upon the grounds: (1) That said appeal was not taken within the time required by our statute; (2) that said appeal was not perfected within six months from the “rendition” of said judgment; and (3) that an execution had been duly issued on the judgment aforesaid and that no appeal had been taken from said judgment “for a period of more than 30 days after said execution was issued and served.”

Upon substantially the foregoing facts the district court of Salt Lake county, by Hon. Morris L. Ritchie, judge thereof, dismissed said appeal, and this proceeding was instituted by the plaintiff herein to require said court to reinstate and to proceed to hear the appeal in the regular course of business. The only question for decision is, Was the appeal taken in time so as to require the district court to entertain and to hear it?

Comp. Laws Utah, 1917, § 7514, so far as material here, provides that appeals from justice courts to the district court may be taken “at any time within thirty days after the rendition of any final judgment. Notice of the entry of judgment must be given to the losing party by the successful party either personally or by publication, and the time of appeal shall date from the service of said notice.” The statute further provides that if it be made to appear that personal service of the notice cannot be made, then the notice may be published in some newspaper published in the county where the action was prosecuted. The foregoing provisions apply to city courts the same as to justice courts. In the instant case personal service was required. Comp. Laws Utah, § 7024, provides that *520 notices must be in writing. Under the provisions of our statute it was therefore incumbent on the plaintiff in the action in the city court to serve the foregoing notice on the plaintiff herein in order to set in motion the 30-day period within which the latter was required to appeal.

There are still other statutory provisions that have some bearing upon the question. Comp. Laws Utah, § 7520, among other things, provides:

“No failure to comply with any provisions of law relating to appeals from justice court to the district court, except a failure to serve and file a notice of appeal, shall defeat the jurisdiction of the district court over the case attempted to he appealed.
“On notice, an appeal shall be dismissed for the following cause: That notice of appeal was not served and filed within thirty days after notice of rendition of judgment. * * *”

It is contended on behalf of the defendant that the affidavit which was served on the plaintiff herein in which he was required to “answer concerning his property” was a sufficient notice under the statute to set in motion the 80-day period within which he was required to appeal. It is urged that in that affidavit the date and amount of the judgment were stated together with the court in which it was rendered. It is quite true that those things appear in the affidavit. The affidavit was, however, intended for an entirely different purpose. It was not intended as a notice under section 7514, supra. It might as well be urged that issuing and serving an execution is a sufficient compliance with the statute. It has, however, frequently been held by courts in states where statutes like our section 7514, supra, are in force that the notice prescribed by the statute must be given in order to set in motion the 30-day period within which an appeal must be taken. In Livingston v. New York E. R. Co., 60 Hun. 473, 15 N. Y. S. 191, under a statute like ours, it was expressly held that to issue and serve an execution which the adverse party attempted to have set aside did not obviate the giving of the statutory notice in order to start the running of the 30-day *521 period within which an appeal must be taken. That case is followed in Kubin v. Miller (City Ct.), 61 N. Y. S. 1121. In Wisconsin there is also a statute like ours. It has frequently been held by the Supreme Court of Wisconsin that unless the statutory notice is served as provided by the statute the time within which an appeal must be taken is held in suspense. In Rosenkrams v. Kline, 42 Wis. 558, the decision is tersely and correctly reflected in the headnote, which reads:

“It is only after written notice of the entry of an order, that the statutory limitation of the time for appealing therefrom begins to run; and the facts that the order was served upon appellant’s attorney, and that he filed exceptions thereto, do not take the ease out of the rule.”

A number of cases are referred to in the opinion in that case holding the same doctrine which it is not necessary to cite.

There is a similar statute in Minnesota. In Levine v. Barrett, 83 Minn. 145, 85 N. W. 942, the rule is stated in the headnote thus:

“G.

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Bluebook (online)
251 P. 26, 68 Utah 517, 1926 Utah LEXIS 112, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/campana-v-district-court-of-salt-lake-county-utah-1926.