Connell v. North Town Motor Co.

17 N.E.2d 589, 297 Ill. App. 247, 1938 Ill. App. LEXIS 648
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedNovember 17, 1938
DocketGen. No. 39,980
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 17 N.E.2d 589 (Connell v. North Town Motor Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Connell v. North Town Motor Co., 17 N.E.2d 589, 297 Ill. App. 247, 1938 Ill. App. LEXIS 648 (Ill. Ct. App. 1938).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Burke

delivered the opinion of the court.

This appeal arises out of a judgment for $200 rendered in the municipal court of Chicago on October 13, 1937, on a trial by the court without a jury.

Appellee (plaintiff) filed a motion, supported by an affidavit and suggestions, that the appeal be dismissed, and we reserved decision. Notice of appeal was filed in the court below on November 2, 1937, and under the practice prevailing at that time the last day for filing the record in this court was Saturday, January 1, 1938, which was a holiday known as New Year’s day. The record was not filed until Monday, January 3,1938, being the sixty-second day after notice of appeal was filed. No extension of time was requested or granted. On December 31,1937, the following order was entered here:

“On the Court’s own motion, it is ordered that this Court stand adjourned until Monday, January 3rd, A. D., 1938, at ten o’clock, A. M., and that the Clerk’s office remain closed until Monday, January 3rd, A. D., 1938, in observance of New Year’s Day.” Plaintiff cites subparagraph (a) of paragraph (2) of Buie 36 of the Supreme Court, reading:

“Whether the praecipes do or do not specify any proceedings at the trial, the record on appeal shall be transmitted to the reviewing court not more than sixty days after notice of appeal has been filed. ...” The following portion of paragraph (2) of the rule is also pertinent: “(b) . . . Where the report of the proceedings at the trial or an agreed statement of facts is filed in the trial court within proper time but the record is not transmitted to the reviewing court before the expiration of the time fixed in this rule, the trial court or the reviewing court on application of the appellee and upon proper showing, may dismiss the appeal; but where the record shall have been filed in the reviewing court after the expiration of the time fixed by this rule but before such application is made by the appellee, the reviewing court shall dismiss the appeal. ’ ’

In considering this matter we should bear in mind paragraph (2), sec. 200, ch. 110, Ill. Rev. Stat. 1937, (sec. 76, Civ. Prac. Act) [Jones Ill. Stats. Ann. 104.076], that

“An appeal shall be deemed perfected when the notice of appeal shall be filed in the lower court. After being duly perfected no appeal shall be dismissed without notice, and no step other than that by which the appeal is perfected shall be deemed jurisdictional.” Section 6, ch. 100, Ill. Rev. Stat. 1937 (sec. 6, Notices Act) [Jones Ill. Stats. Ann. 107.292], provides:

“In computing the time for which any notice is to be given, whether required by law, order of court or contract, the first day shall be excluded and the last included, unless the last is Sunday, and then it also shall be excluded.” Appellee maintains, under the authority of Richter v. Chicago & Erie R. Co., 273 Ill. 625, that where the last day for filing a record is a holiday such day will not be excluded from the computation of time unless it falls on a Sunday, and we accept that as a correct statement of the law. In the instant appeal the last day fell on a Saturday and the statute last quoted did not apply. Section 18, ch. 98, Ill. Rev. Stat. 1937 (sec. 17, Negotiable Instruments Act) [Jones Ill. Stats. Ann. 89.018], designates the days that are declared to be legal holidays and half holidays, and states that

“. . . For all purposes whatsoever, as regards the presenting for payment or acceptance, the maturity and protesting and giving notice of the dishonor of bills of exchange, bank checks and promissory notes and other negotiable or commercial paper or instruments, be treated and is considered as is the first day of the week, commonly called Sunday. When any such holidays fall on Sunday, the Monday next following shall be held and considered such’ holiday. All notes, bills, drafts, checks, or other evidence of indebtedness, falling due or maturing on either of said days, shall be deemed as due or maturing upon the day following, and when two (2) or more of these days come together, or immediately succeeding each other, then such instruments, paper or indebtedness shall be deemed as due or having matured on the day following the last of such days.” A separate statute, approved June 24, 1921, adds November 11, Armistice day, to the list of holidays. Section 216 of the same chapter (sec. 193, Negotiable Instruments Act) [Jones Ill. Stats. Ann. 89.216] reads:

“Where the day, or the last day, for doing an act herein required or permitted to be done falls on Sunday or on a holiday, the act may be done on the next succeeding secular or business day.” The language quoted from the Negotiable Instruments Act has no application to the filing of records or pleadings in court. Appellant (defendant), in its counter suggestions, argues that the motion to dismiss comes too late, having been made after appellee’s brief and argument was filed. Appellant’s brief and argument and abstract were filed on February 14, 1938. March 11, 1938, appellee filed a supplemental abstract, and on March 24, 1938, appellee filed his brief and argument. The motion to dismiss which we are discussing was filed on April 15, 1938, about three weeks after he had filed his brief. We held in Finlen v. Foster, 211 Ill. App. 609, 621: “In actual practice the filing of appellees ’ brief is held to be equivalent to a joinder in error. Truesdale v. Ford, 40 Ill. 80; DeBeukelaer v. People, 25 Ill. App. 460; Ferrias v. People, 71 Ill. App. 559; Fread v. Hoag, 132 Ill. App. 233; McCormick v. Higgins, 190 Ill. App. 241; Tobias v. Tobias, 193 Ill. App. 95.

“By joining in error appellees waived the right to move to dismiss the appeal. Matson v. Connelly, 24 Ill. 143; Brockway v. Rowley, 66 Ill. 99; Dinet v. People, 73 Ill. 183; Kane v. People, 13 Ill. App. 382; Fread v. Hoag, supra; Kircher v. M. Keating & Sons Co., 145 Ill. App. 1; People v. Rudorf, 149 Ill. App. 215.”

On March 1, 1938, on the call of the February term calendar, the appeal was ‘ ‘ Taken on abstract and briefs filed by appellant and briefs of appellee due March 14/38.” Having in mind the fact that on March 1, 1938 (prior to the time the motion to dismiss was presented), the appeal had been taken, it is interesting to observe that our Supreme Court, in Farrell v. West Chicago Park Commissioners, 182 Ill. 250, 252, said: “When the motion [to dismiss the appeal] was made the appellants had submitted their controversy to the court, and it could not be entertained without setting aside the order by which the case was taken. There was no motion to set aside that order, and the motion to dismiss must be denied.” Had appellee desired to move to dismiss the appeal on the ground that the record was filed two days late, he should have done so before he filed his brief and argument and before the case was taken by the court. Appellee’s brief and argument calls our attention to parts of the record and abstract, and we must assume that at the time he filed the brief he knew that the record had been filed two days beyond the time permitted. Under such circumstances it must be assumed that he elected to ignore the delay in filing the record. For the reasons stated the motion to dismiss the appeal is denied.

Having disposed of the motion to dismiss, we shall now consider the points presented in the respective briefs:

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Bluebook (online)
17 N.E.2d 589, 297 Ill. App. 247, 1938 Ill. App. LEXIS 648, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/connell-v-north-town-motor-co-illappct-1938.