Cincinnati Street Railway Co. v. Wright

54 Ohio St. (N.S.) 181
Ohio Supreme Court·Decided February 25, 1896·Published

Opinion

Bradbury, J.

The circuit court reversed the judgment of the superior court upon the ground that the latter court erred in instructing the jury as requested by the street railway company, and in refusing to give certain instructions asked tobe given by the administrator, plaintiff in that court. The plaintiff in error contends that the bill of exceptions taken to the rulings of the superior court was not perfected within the time prescribed by statute, and therefore not being warranted by law, was inoperative, and gave no jurisdiction to the circuit court to hear the questions upon which it reversed the judgement of the superior court. It is conceded that this objection was not made in the circuit court, and for that reason contention is made that this court should not listen to it now. The general rule, doubtless, is for this court to disregard questions not made in the court whose judgment is under review.

However, if the court, whose judgment is under consideration, was without jurisdiction over the subject matter in contention, the rule does not apply, and that question may be raised here, although not brought to the attention of the lower court. Doubtless an orderly course of procedure, and thorough fairness towards that court, would require the question of its jurisdiction to be made there in [187]*187the first instance, but a failure to do so is not fatal to the right to contest the question here.

The exceptions to the rulings of the trial court in giving and refusing certain special instructions requested by the parties were made on the 8th day of February, 1894, the day that the jury were instructed. A motion for a new trial was filed February 10, 1894, including, among other grounds of error, the action of the court in giving and refusing to give to the jury such special requests ¡which motion was overruled and a judgment entered on the verdict on March 3, 1894. On April 17 following, a period of forty-five days after the motion for a new trial had been overruled, and sixty-eight days from the day the exceptions were noted, the plaintiff below presented the bill of exceptions to the trial court for allowance, and the court then extended the time therefor ten days beyond the time allowed by statute, which was then fifty days, and on April 24, 1894, within the period of the ten days extension, the bill of exceptions was signed, sealed, allowed and ordered to be made a part of the record in the cause. This statement of the dates upon, and the order in, which the several material events occurred shows that the bill of exceptions was presented to the trial judge for an extension of time for signing it, on the forty-fifth day from the overruling of the motion for a new trial, and the sixty-eighth from the day the charge was made and exceptions thereto noted; and it was signed by the judge seven days later.

The statute by its own force allows fifty days for perfecting a bill of exceptions, and, provided it is presented to the trial judge at least five days before the fifty days have expired, he may allow ten days more for the purpose of signing the same. [188]*188Pugh v. State ex rel., 51 Ohio St., 116. It is therefore apparent that the validity of the bill of exceptions. in this case depends upon the event from which the computation of time shall be made. If, from the overruling of the motion for a new trial, it is valid, because it was presented to the trial judge on the forty-fifth day thereafter, that being at least five days before the expiration of the fifty days; the judge then extended for ten days the period for signing the same, which g’ave for that purpose a total of sixty days. On the seventh day after the extension was granted, or the fifty-second day from that on which the motion for a new trial was overruled, the bill of exceptions was signed by him.

If, however, the computation be made from the day on which the charge w;as given and the exceptions to it noted, then the application for an extension of time and the subsequent signing of the bill of exceptions were both too late, the former having been made sixty-eight days after, and the latter act occurring seventy-five days after the exceptions had been noted.

This court held in Earp, Supervisor, v. R. R. Co., 12 Ohio St., 621, that a party who, on the trial of action, takes exceptions to the decision of the court upon the admission of testimony, and to the charges of the court to the jury, and has those exceptions reduced to writing and signed by the judge, may allege error in a petition filed in the district court without filing a motion for a new trial in the trial court upon those grounds. Doubtless the law is the same now; for in this respect the existing statute is similar to the one then in force. Counsel contend that because a motion for a new trial is not necessary to preserve the right [189]*189to review a charge of the court, the time within which a bill of exceptions should be taken for that purpose begins to run from the day the charge was given. This contention would be sound in a case where a motion for a new trial was not made, and the party excepting choose to rely upon the exception taken during the course of the trial. The choice, however, is with him. By the express terms of section 5301, Revised Statutes, he may include these grounds of error in the motion for a new trial. The language of section referring to this matter is, where “the exception is to the decision of the court on a motion * " * for a new trial for misdirection by the court to the jury, * * * the party excepting must reduce his exceptions to writing and present them to- the trial judge or judges for allowance within fifty days after the overruling of the motion for a new trial. The language of this section,- we think', fully authorizes a party excepting to a charge of the court to include the alleged error in the motion for a new trial; it is just and reasonable to afford by that means an opportunity to the trial-judge to review his rulings, which often times must be made without access to authorities or time for deliberation. And where this ground of error is included in the motion for a new trial, the time within which the bill of exceptions must be taken runs from the overruling of such motion.

We are not aware of any holding of this court that can be construed as militating against these views. It follows, therefore,- that the bill of exceptions was allowed and filed within the time allowed by law.

The bill of exceptions discloses that the intestate of the plaintiff below was a boy about four[190]*190teen years old, who had steady ein.ploym.ent in a type foundry in Cincinnati and was accustomed to go to and from his work unattended; that the deceased and two or three other boys on the evening of the accident, just at dark, were riding along one of the public streets of Cincinnati on a four wheeled dray, without the knowledge of the driver; that while the boys were so riding, a street car of the defendant below, collided with the dray and thereby caused the death of the intestate. There was evidence tending to prove, and other evidence tending to rebut ■ negligence in running the street car, and in the driver of the dray, contributing to the collision. The record, however, discloses no evidence of any act whatever done by the deceased that contributed to produce the collision.

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Cincinnati Street Railway Co. v. Wright, 54 Ohio St. (N.S.) 181 (Ohio 1896).

54 Ohio St. (N.S.) 181 (Cincinnati Street Railway Co. v. Wright) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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