Des Moines Savings Bank v. Kennedy

120 N.W. 742, 142 Iowa 272
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedApril 10, 1909
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 120 N.W. 742 (Des Moines Savings Bank v. Kennedy) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Des Moines Savings Bank v. Kennedy, 120 N.W. 742, 142 Iowa 272 (iowa 1909).

Opinions

Ladd, J.

1. Limitation of denceN!of non-residence. Upon the introduction of all of the evidence, the court withdrew all the issues from the jury save that of the plea of the statute of limitations. One of the notes became due March 19, 1896, an-77 other March 20, 1896, and the third Decem]jer 1896. Suit was begun January 26, 1907, so that the suit was barred by the statute declaring that actions on written contracts shall be brought within ten years after the causes thereon accrue (section 3447, Code), unless since then the maker had been a nonresident of the State for a time longer than the period between the expiration of the ten years and the commencement of the action, section 3451 of the Code, providing that the time during which a defendant is “a nonresident of the State shall not be included in computing any of the periods of limitation above prescribed.” To establish non-residence plaintiff introduced in evidence a patent to one hundred and sixty acres of land in Eaullc County, S. D., from the government to Michael Kennedy, bearing date January 8, 1904, and reciting that it was issued pursuant to the act of Congress securing homesteads to actual settlers [275]*275on the public domain and upon proof of compliance with said law by the grantee. In offering the patent in evidence, counsel for plaintiff stated that it was the “one which was produced by this defendant in response to an order of the court on the 27th day of April, 1907.” An objection as incompetent, irrelevant, and immaterial was overruled, and rightly so. On the order of the court that a “patent issued to defendant” such as described be filed with the clerk of the court, a patent was filed. The attorney offered the patent in evidence as the one so filed. It was subject to the inspection of counsel for defendant, and, if there was any doubt as to its identity, the attention of the court should have been directed thereto. This was not done and, as the attorney is presumed to have acted in good faith in the trial, the instrument will be assumed to be that produced in response to the order. The production of the patent in response to the order of the court was a solemn admission that it was that which the order called for, namely, a patent from the government to the defendant. As it was the original instrument, section 4633, Code Supp. 1907, is not applicable. Authorities cited concerning the necessity of identifying a document before it may be received in evidence are sound, but such identification may be by admission of the adverse party as in this case, and this is quite as conclusive as when by other evidence. Such admission obviated any question as to identification by name, though this might, in the absence of any showing to the contrary, alone prove sufficient in a civil action.

2. Evidence: dentity ¿f . II. Certified copies of an application and affidavit for this identical land as a homestead, filed in the United States land office at Huron, S. D., and of the sworn proof that Michael Kennedy had so complied with the act of Congress as to be entitled to a patent therefor, made by two witnesses and defendant, were also introduced in evidence. These were [276]*276equally as credible as the original papers. Section 4635, Code. Both the witnesses and the defendant therein testified that the latter settled on the land and established actual residence thereon August 15, 1898, had resided continuously thereon from that time until August 29, 1903, the date of the affidavits, and that in the meantime he had never been absent therefrom. The objection interposed to this evidence is that there was no showing that defendant was the person who made such proof. Ordinarily a person is identified by his name. It is the designation by which he is known, and in civil actions identity of name is prima facie evidence of identity of person. See cases collected in dissenting opinion in State v. Smith, 129 Iowa, 709; Snyder v. Fidler, 125 Iowa, 378.

3. Same: certified copies: admissibility. Of course, different persons may bear the same name, and whether, under the circumstances shown, a person was the particular party designated, may be for the jury to determine; but in this case the issuance of the patent to defendant for the identical tract, of land, the proof that he was in South Dakota much of his time during five years involved, that he had made proof of his homestead claim before the county clerk of like name with witnesses bearing the names of those mentioned in the affidavits, that he was on a claim, and his explanation how the affidavits were prepared, and that “the homestead law as understood in that neighborhood did not require the homesteader to remain on the claim at all times,” left no doubt as to defendant being the person named in the several papers.

4. Limitation of actions: nonresidence: evidence. III. From the evidence above referred to the jury might have found that defendant had been an actual resident of South Dakota for a period of five years, for to have acqiiired the patent he must have resided upon and cultivated the land for that period. Section 2291, 6 Fed. St. Ann. (U. S. Comp. St. 1901, p. 1390). Indeed, the only avenue [277]*277of escape from this conclusion was in finding that in procuring the patent he had perpetrated a fraud -on the government of the United States. Such was not the necessary deduction from the evidence adduced, and therefore the court rightly overruled defendant’s motion for a directed verdict.

5. Same- in-definition of terms. . IV. The court did not define the words “nonresident” or “resident” in its charge, and complaint is made of this omission. No instruction was asked, and under the peculiar facts of this case the omission to define these words, in the absence of such re--was not error. The only issue was whether defendant had established an actual residence on the homestead claim in South Dakota and lived thereon long enough to toll the statute of limitations for the required time. In no other way did plaintiff undertake to prove nonresidence of this State. Had he been a resident of South Dakota, as he represented in order to acquire the land under the patent, or a resident of this State, as he undertook to prove in order to defeat the collection of these notes ? Any definitions the court might have given could not have elucidated this issue. What has been said sufficiently indicates our approval of the instruction to the effect that a strong presumption arose that during the time defendant was acquiring his homestead he was a resident of South Dakota, and therefore a nonresident of this State.

6 Same-- non residence. V. The court told the jury that, if “defendant established and maintained a residence in the State of South Dakota, you are instructed that for the purposes of this ease during such time as he was a resifient of South Dakota he was a nonresident of the State of Iowa.” Undoubtedly a person’s residence in another state might be of a temporary nature, and such as not to constitute him a nonresident; but the only, evidence adduced by plaintiff tended to show that defend[278]*278ant was an actual resident of South Dakota, so that, if he established a residence there at all, it was an actual residence, and there was no error in this instruction.

7. Original notice: substituted service, It is argued that the evidence was such as to indicate that service of an original notice of an action might have been had on defendant at any time in.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
120 N.W. 742, 142 Iowa 272, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/des-moines-savings-bank-v-kennedy-iowa-1909.