Coney v. Farmers State Bank

256 N.E.2d 692, 146 Ind. App. 483, 1970 Ind. App. LEXIS 457
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedApril 6, 1970
Docket369A52
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 256 N.E.2d 692 (Coney v. Farmers State Bank) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Coney v. Farmers State Bank, 256 N.E.2d 692, 146 Ind. App. 483, 1970 Ind. App. LEXIS 457 (Ind. Ct. App. 1970).

Opinions

Per Curiam.

This matter is before, us on the Order of the Supreme Court- of Indiana remanding this cause to this Court for" an opiniori setting forth the reasons for granting the ap-pellee’s Motion to Affirm.

. This is an. appeal from the LaGrange Circuit Court wherein-' the trial court entered judgment for the appellee herein and against the appellant, Bernice Coney. The assigned error on appeal is that the trial court erred in overruling-the appellant’^ motion for new trial. The appellant has argued in her brief only the following causes of her motion for new trial:

“3. 1 Error in the. awarding of attorney’s fees in behalf of the attorney representing the plaintiff in that the attorney was an officer of the bank and that no attorney’s fees have ever been paid by the bank to this attorney, all as shown by the record and the evidence.
“4. That the decision of thé Court is not sustained by sufficient evidence.
“5. That the decision of the Court is contrary to law.”

'" The'appellee’s Motion to Affirm alleges that each of these specifications of error urged by the appellant requires a con[485]*485sideration of the evidence, and that there is no bill of. exceptions containing the evidence in the record in this cause. The appellee’s specific argument is as follows:

“5. There is no bill of exceptions containing the evidence in the record in this case. What appellant apparently considers-as such is not a bill of exceptions and is not a part of the record for the following reasons:
a. There appears, beginning on page 37 of the transcript and extending through page 85, what appears to be questions asked of various witnesses, answers, .objections, rulings and exhibits. This is.followed on page 86 by a certificate of a court reporter in a form which might be used by a court reporter in preparing a transcript of evidence. However, the purported bill of exceptions contains no certificate of the judge as required by Rule 2-3 and the decision's of this and the Supreme Court.
b. The purported bill of exceptions contains ho caption or formal commencement or introductory statement of any kind.”

We have carefully examined the transcript and find that the bill of exceptions is not complete. There is no formal commencement to the bill of exceptions. There is no caption identifying the bill of exceptions. There is nothing- to identify the purported bill of exceptions as being a . part of this particular cause. It begins with what appears to be a colloquy between the Court and counsel. It does not contain any ending phrase indicating this was all of the evidence given in the case. •

Immediately following what purports to be the transcript of the evidence is the certificate of Gene Plasterer, the court reporter of the LaGrange Circuit Court, which certificate is in the proper form and certifies that the foregoing manuscript is a full, true, correct and complete copy of the evidence, objections thereto, the Court’s rulings and documentary evidence, and that said manuscript is a full, true and correct record of the evidence and contains- all of -the evidence given. However, it has long been held that the [486]*486certificate of the reporter adds nothing to the bill of excep>-tions, need not be incorporated therein, and when it is included, it is mere surplusage. Rowan v. State (1916), 184 Ind. 399, 111 N. E. 431; Wagner v. Wagner (1915), 183 Ind. 528, 109 N. E. 47; Parker v. State (1915), 183 Ind. 130, 108 N. E. 517; Walsh v. Gilmore (1960), 130 Ind. App. 307, 164 N. E. 2d 358.

We cannot determine, from examining the forty-nine pages immediately preceding the reporter’s certificate, what they purport to be. There are questions and answers. But there is nothing to identify these questions and answers. Conceivably they could be part of a conditional examination; or they could be from a preliminary hearing; or they could be from an entirely different cause of action than the one before us. Moreover, as there is no showing of a beginning or an end, we cannot determine whether it is partial or complete. This is totally insufficient as a bill of exceptions.

We are aware of the recent cases holding that we must examine the bill of exceptions as a whole to ascertain whether or not it contains words which indicate clearly and unmistakably that the bill does contain all the evidence. Kist v. Coughlin (1944), 222 Ind. 639, 649, 57 N. E. 2d 199, 203; Morrow, Inc. v. Munson et al. (1958), 129 Ind. App. 113, 117, 150 N. E. 2d 256; Hayes Freight Lines v. Oestricher (1946), 117 Ind. App. 143, 150, 66 N. E.'2d 612, 68 N. E. 2d 792 (transfer den.). In this case we cannot determine from what purports to be the bill of exceptions that it contains all the evidence, or even that it contains the evidence given in this particular cause.

The appellee next argues there is no certificate of the judge as required by Rule 2-3 of the Supreme Court and the decisions of the Supreme and Appellate Courts. With this we cannot agree. Immediately preceding the judge’s certificate, the following appears:

[487]*487“Bill of exceptions tendered and approved and ordered filed, as per WRITTEN ENTRY FURNISHED:”

On the next page appears the judge’s certificate in proper form. Appellant’s counsel, by marginal note, has denominated this as “Judge’s Written Entry.”

Notwithstanding the incorrect marginal notation identifying the Judge’s Certificate as the “Judge’s Written Entry,” we will look to the substance of the form and not to the title. Oster v. Broe (1903), 161 Ind. 113, 133, 64 N. E. 918; Keeshin Motor Express Co. v. Glassman (1942), 219 Ind. 538, 543, 38 N. E. 2d 847; John’s Cash Furn. Stores, Inc., et al. v. Mitchell (1955), 126 Ind. App. 231, 235, 125 N. E. 2d 827, 127 N. E. 2d 128 (Reh. Den.)

Three pages later appear two printed forms, each of which is entitled Judge’s Certificate, and appellant’s counsel in his marginal notes has identified these as “Judge’s Certificate.” These latter two certificates are not the form of judge’s certificate required to settle a bill of exceptions. These are forms of congressional certification in which the judge certifies that the clerk certifies the clerk and the reporter are the clerk and the reporter, and the clerk certifies that the judge is the judge. These certifications not being required, are surplusage.

In our examination of the transcript we discover another defect, however; namely, that there is no order book entry showing that the purported bill of exceptions was filed with the clerk, and the clerk’s certificate makes no reference to the bill of exceptions, either that the bill of exceptions is contained in the transcript or that the bill of exceptions was filed with the clerk.

Rule 2-3 of the Rules of the Supreme Court of Indiana provides in part as follows:

“Every bill of exceptions tendered prior to the filing of the transcript in the appellate tribunal shall, if correct, be signed by the judge and filed with the clerk, which filing may be evidenced by an order book entry or the clerk’s certificate.” (our emphasis)

[488]

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Coney v. Farmers State Bank
256 N.E.2d 692 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1970)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
256 N.E.2d 692, 146 Ind. App. 483, 1970 Ind. App. LEXIS 457, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/coney-v-farmers-state-bank-indctapp-1970.