Chattanooga-Dayton Bus Line v. Lynch

9 Tenn. App. 129, 1927 Tenn. App. LEXIS 221
CourtCourt of Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedMay 25, 1927
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 9 Tenn. App. 129 (Chattanooga-Dayton Bus Line v. Lynch) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Chattanooga-Dayton Bus Line v. Lynch, 9 Tenn. App. 129, 1927 Tenn. App. LEXIS 221 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1927).

Opinion

SNODGRASS, J.

In view of the conclusions reached in this case it will not be necessary to state the case further than to say, that the plaintiff in error, F. S. Wingate, was the owner of a bus and operating the same in Hamilton county, under the trade name of Chattanooga-Dayton Bus Line, and had taken out a policy of insurance with defendant, the New York Indemnity Company, under Chapter 729 of the Acts of the General Assembly of the State of Tennessee for the year 1925, which company was also made party to the suit.

The declaration was filed also against the Insurance Company by the defendant in error, who claimed that the company was also liable by reason of such an indemnity, taken out, it was alleged, for the benefit of the public, or anyone who might be injured in connection with the operation of defendant’s motor driven conveyances, insisting that she had received certain injuries when the bus of defendant on which she was riding as a passenger was carelessly and negligently allowed to leave the road and turn over on its side, causing the injuries, which she described; averring also certain other specifications of negligence, and claiming damages in the sum of $5,000.

There was a general plea of not guilty and the case was heard before the judge and jury, resulting in a verdict and judgment for the plaintiff below in the sum of $5000. After a motion for a, new *131 trial had been overruled the defendant has, allegedly, perfected an appeal to this court.

There are various errors assigned: That there is no evidence to support the verdict; that it is against the greater weight of the evidence ; that it is contrary to law; that it is excessive; and that there was error in the charge of the court; all of which was denied by defendant in error, but it is insisted by defendant in error that the record- fails to show the trial judge ever granted an appeal in this cause, and for this reason the case is not properly in this court. It is insisted that it will be seen by a reference to the transcript that there was no prayer for an appeal; that an appeal, to be effective, must be prayed for and granted, and that the minutes of the court must so show. Also it is contended that the judgment, under the statute, had become absolute; that no minute entry, at least within "thirty days from the entry of the final judgment, appears upon the record, so as to have arrested the operation of the statute to foreclose any right of appeal had such been otherwise effective. The record discloses that the final judgment was entered on the 30th day of June, 1926; that on July 2nd, 1926 the following agreed order was entered:

“By agreement of attorneys representing both sides, the court is pleased to and does hereby give to the defendants ten days additional time in which to file a motion for a new trial, and it is so ordered.”

The record does not show whether the court had any rule as to the time in which motions for a new trial should be filed, but the order shows at least that the defendants would have had ten days from the time of its entry, July 2. 1926, if the court should hold so long, so that it might have been filed on July 12th. However, the .filing of the motion for a new trial, without the entry on the minutes of the court showing that a motion was filed, is insufficient. Railroad v. Edgerton, 98 Tenn. 541, 41 S. W., 1035; Ellis & Gresham v. Ellis, 92 Tenn., 471, 22 S. W., 1; Shan. Anno. Code of Tenn., Sec. 4898; Johnston v. Phillips, 4 Tenn. C. C. A., 666; Whittaker v. T. C. R. R. Co., 3 Tenn. App., 185, holding that—

“It is both necessary to make the motion for a new trial and to have a minute entry thereon within thirty days after the entry of the final judgment, in order to suspend the judgment.”

We have recently held, in the case of Southern Cities Power Co. and the Public Light & Power Co. v. T. D. Gafford, Adm’r, in an oninion filed at Knoxville, that a nunc pro tunc order may evidence this entry as within -the thirty days. In the case just referred to the motion had been called to the attention of the court and continued within the thirty days, though passed upon later. But a motion simply filed with the clerk and not called to the attention of the court and some action taken thereon, though filed within the thirty days, *132 is not made, until such attention is drawn to it and a minute order made. In the case at bar on July 2nd ten days additional time was granted in which to file a motion for a new trial, but there is nothing to show that it was ever brought to the attention of the court until August 2, ■ 1926, more than thirty days after the rendition of the judgment. At this latter date the following order was entered:

“This cause was heard on defendants’ motion heretofore filed for a new trial, which motion, after due consideration by the court, was in all things overruled and disallowed. It is therefore ordered, adjudged and decreed by the court that said motion in all things be and the same is overruled; to which action of the court in overruling their motion for a new trial defendants excepted, and by order of the court they are given (30) thirty days in which to prepare a bill of exceptions, make appeal bond or otherwise perfect their appeal,”

It does appear from the bill of exceptions that a motion for a new trial had been filed with the clerk on July 14, 1926, and that there appears from a bond filed by the Chattanooga-Dayton Bus Line on Aug. 24, 1926, the following recitals:

“Know all men by these presents that we, Chattanooga-Dayton Bus Line as principal, and Bachman & Wilkerson as surety, are held and firmly bound unto Edith Lynch, in the sum of two hundred and fifty ($250) dollars.
“To be void on condition that the said Chattanooga-Dayton Bus Line shall successfully prosecute an appeal prayed by it to the next term of the Court of Civil Appeals to be held at Knoxville, Tennessee, from a judgment for the sum of $5,000 rendered against said defendant, Chattanooga-Dayton Bus Line, and in favor of said Edith Lynch on the 30th day of June, 1926, by the said Circuit Court of Hamilton County, Tennessee, or shall pay all costs and damages that may be adjudged against said defendant, Chattanooga-Dayton Bus Line by reason of said appeal.

“Otherwise to be and remain in full force and effect.” While undoubtedly it has been more than once held, from the numerous citations in defendants’ in error’s brief, that in order to give jurisdiction to the appellate court of the ease on appeal, the record minutes must show that an appeal was both prayed for and granted, yet in the case of Bank v. Johnson, 105 Tenn. 520, 59 S. W. 131, it was held that this need not be directly shown by the entry; that one of these essential facts (and by a parity of reasoning both of them) may be shown indirectly in, that where the final decree recites prayer for appeal, and gives time to “make and file an appeal bond,” bond being afterwards given, it sufficiently shows that the appeal was granted. The court said in that case:

*133 “We think that the allowance of time by the Chancellor for the defendant to give bond is equivalent to a recital that the appeal was granted, for otherwise the Chancellor would certainly not have given time to make the appeal bond.

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Bluebook (online)
9 Tenn. App. 129, 1927 Tenn. App. LEXIS 221, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/chattanooga-dayton-bus-line-v-lynch-tennctapp-1927.