Cropsey v. Wiggenhorn

3 Neb. 108
CourtNebraska Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 15, 1873
StatusPublished
Cited by39 cases

This text of 3 Neb. 108 (Cropsey v. Wiggenhorn) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Nebraska Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cropsey v. Wiggenhorn, 3 Neb. 108 (Neb. 1873).

Opinion

Maxwell, J.

On the first day of March, 1872, Major C. Long executed and delivered to the defendant in error a promissory note for the sum of twenty-five hundred dollars payable in one year from the date thereof, with interest from maturity at the rate of twelve per cent per annuo^ and to secure the payment thereof, Long, and wife executed and delivered to the defendant in error, a mortgage on the east half of lot twelve in block twenty-four, in that part of Ashland, known as Elora City. The mortgage was duly recorded on the eighth day of March, 1872. On the thirty-first day of October, 1872, Long and wife conveyed the premises, subject to the mortgage, to Edward B. Woodbury. On the eighteenth of March, 1873, Woodbury conveyed the premises to plaintiff in error. Suit to foreclose the mortgage was commenced in the district court of Saunders county on the first day of April, 1873. Major C. Long, Caroline Long, and the plaintiff in error were made defendants. Summons was issued and served on the defendants. On the 24th of April, 1873, the defendant filed the following motion:

“ And now comes the defendants by Seth Robinson, their attorney, and appearing specially for this motion, and not for any other purpose, and move the court here to order that the petition in this cause be struck from the files, on the ground that the affidavit of verification of said petition is insufficient and defective in this, to-wit: that said affidavit is made by the attorney for the said plaintiff, whereas it should have been made by the defendant himself; that no sufficient reason is shown in said affidavit, why the same is not made by the said plaintiff, or why the same is made by plaintiff’s attorney.”

[113]*113The verification of the petition is as follows:

State of Nebraska., ] Saunders county, j '

T. B. Wilson being sworn says, he is one of the attorneys of the above named E. A. Wiggenhorn, the plaintiff herein, duly authorized in the premises, that the above pleading of E. A. Wiggenhorn, is founded upon a written instrument, for the payment of money only, and is now in the possession of this affiant, and that the facts and allegations in the foregoing pleading of E. A. Wiggenhorn are true as affiant believes.

T. B. Wilson.

At the May term, 1873, of the district court in Saunders county, after argument, the court overruled the motion, to which defendants excepted. A judgment was rendered for the amount claimed in the petition, and for the sale of the mortgaged premises to satisfy the same. ■

A petition in error is now filed in this court by Cropsey, one of the defendants in the court below, to reverse that judgment. The errors assigned are:

“ First. That the summons in said action, served upon the said Andrew J. Cropsey, the plaintiff in error, was endorsed as follows to-wit: “amount claimed of the defendants by the plaintiff is $2500.00, and interest from March 1, 1873, at 12 per cent,” whereas the action was for the foreclosure and sale of mortgaged premises, and not for the recovery of money only.

Second. That the summons served upon the said Andrew J. Cropsey, was endorsed with the amount claimed to be due, as in actions for the recovery of money only, whereas said action was for the foreclosure of a mortgage upon real estate.

Third. The said court erred in overruling the motion of the defendant in the court below, to strike the petition of the plaintiff from the files.

[114]*114Fowrth. The court erred in rendering judgment against the defendants, including the plaintiff in error, for the amount due on the note and mortgage described in the petition.

Fifth. The court erred in rendering judgment against the said Andrew J. Oropsey, the plaintiff in error, for the amount found due on the note and mortgage described in the petition of the plaintiff in the court below.

Sixth. That judgment was given for "Wiggenhom when it ought to have been for plaintiff in error.”

Section 120 of the code provides, that when the affidavit is made by the agent or attorney it must set forth the reason why it is not made by the party himself. It can be made by the agent or attorney, only:

First. "Where the facts are within the personal knowledge of the agent or attorney. .

Second. "Where the plaintiff is an infant or of unsound mind.

Third. WRere the pleading to be verified is founded upon a written instrument for the payment of money only, and such instrument is in possession of the agent or attorney.

Fourth. Where the party is not a resident of, or is absent from the county. General Statutes, 543.

In the case of Smith v. Rosenthal 11 Howard Pr., 442, tho court held, “ that an affidavit of verification of a complaint on a promissory note, made by the attorney of the plaintiff, stating in addition to what*is required in an affidavit of verification of the party, that he is such attorney, and that he has in his possession the note on which the action is brought, is a sufficient verification. Treadwell v. Fasset, 10 Howard Pr., 184. Wheeler v. Chasley, 14 Abbott, 441.

But it is contended by the attorney for the plaintiff in [115]*115error, that this provision applies only to actions at law, and has no application to suits in equity.

Under the code “ the distinction between actions at law, and suits in equity, and the form of all such actions and suits heretofore existing, are abolished, and in their place shall be but one form of action to be called a civil action.” General Statutes, 524.

This abrogation of the forms of pleading, and the adoption of a uniform system of remedies in the courts, does not abolish the distinction between law and equity in the determination of causes, nor require that every cause of action shall be set forth in the same manner. Many cases occur in which courts of law and equity entertain concurrent jurisdiction. Judge Story, says: “the concurrent jurisdiction, then of equity, has its true origin in one of two sources; either the courts of law, although they have general jurisdiction in the matter, cannot give adequate, specific and prefect relief, or under the actual circumstances of the case they cannot give any relief at all. The former occurs in all cases where a simpie judgment, for the plaintiff or for the defendant, does not meet the full merits and exigencies of the case, but a variety of adjustments, limitations, and cross claims are to be introduced, and finally acted on, and a decree, meeting all the circumstances of the particular case between the various parties, is indispensible to complete distributive justice.” Story’s Equity Jurisprudence, Sec. 76.

Section 429 of the code of civil procedure provides, that “judgment may be given for or against one or more of several defendants; it may determine the ultimate rights of the parties on either side, as between themselves, and it may grant to the defendant any affirmative relief to which he may be entitled.” General Statutes, 596.

This section, derived from the practice of courts of equity, is also applicable, in many cases, in actions at law, and relief may be obtained under the code, in all cases [116]

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Bluebook (online)
3 Neb. 108, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cropsey-v-wiggenhorn-neb-1873.