Dougherty v. Brown

51 N.E. 729, 21 Ind. App. 115, 1898 Ind. App. LEXIS 629
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedNovember 2, 1898
DocketNo. 2,679
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 51 N.E. 729 (Dougherty v. Brown) 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
Dougherty v. Brown, 51 N.E. 729, 21 Ind. App. 115, 1898 Ind. App. LEXIS 629 (Ind. Ct. App. 1898).

Opinion

Black, J.

The judgment from which this appeal is brought was rendered against the appellant, who was the plaintiff, on the 31st day of December, 1896. The transcript of the record with the appellant’s assignment of errors, was filed in the office of the clerk of this court on the 29th day of December, 1897, and thereupon, on the same day, the clerk issued notice of the appeal. The return of the sheriff of Wells county showed service of this notice on the 30th of December, 1897, upon Sharpe & Sturgis and Dailey, Simmons & Dailey, attorneys of record for the appellees, but did [116]*116not show service upon the appellees. On the 29th of January, 1898, the cause was submitted by the clerk of this court under the rule. On the 28th of March, 1898, the appellant filed his brief on his assignment of errors. On the 28th of June, 1898, the appellees, appearing specially, filed their motion to dismiss the appeal, for the reasons that this is a vacation appeal and had been on the docket more than ninety days, and no steps had been taken to bring the appellees into court; that the notice was ineffectual for the reason that it was served only upon said attorneys of the appellees, and not upon the appellees themselves, upon W'hom no notice whatever of the appeal had been served; that more than ninety days had expired since said ineffectual notice was issued; and that rule thirty-five of this court therefore had not been complied with. On the 9th of July, 1898, the appellant filed in this court proof by affidavit, dated July 8,1898, of the service of a notice, dated the same day, to Robert F. Cummins, clerk of the Wells Circuit Court, and to Sharpe & Sturgis and Dailey, Simmons & Dailey, attorneys of record for the appellees, who, the affidavit stated, were, and had been since the 28th of December, 1897, and long before, nonresidents of this State, the last mentioned notice being to the effect that the appellant procured from said clerk a transcript of the record in this cause and filed it on the 29th of December, 1897, in the office of the clerk of this court, together with an assignment of errors upon said transcript, and that the appellant did, on said day, appeal to this court from the final judgment in said cause in and by the court below; and the persons notified were cited to appear, etc. On the same day (July 9th 1898), the appellant filed in this court his motion, wherein he asks this court to overrule said motion to dismiss, and further, that the submission herein be set aside, the [117]*117reasons stated being in substance a recital of the matters which we have already stated. Rule thirty-five of this court is as follows: “Where a cause appealed in vacation has been on the docket ninety - days or more, and there is no appearance by the appellee, and no steps have been taken to bring him into court; or where a notice has been issued and proves ineffectual from any cause, and no steps are taken for morq than ninety days after the issuance of such ineffectual notice to bring the appellee into court, the clerk shall enter an order dismissing the appeal.”

By section 652, Burns’ R. S. 1894 (640, R. S. 1881), it is provided: “After the close of the term at which the judgment is rendered, an appeal may be taken by the service of a notice in writing on the adverse party or his attorney, and also on the clerk of the court in which the proceedings were had, stating the appeal from the judgment or some specific part thereof; or such appeals may be taken by procuring from the clerk of the court a transcript of the record and proceeding in the suit, or so much thereof as is embraced in the appeal, and filing the same in the office of. the clerk of the supreme court, who shall endorse thereon the time of filing, and issue a notice of the appeal to the appellee.” It is provided by section 645, Burns’ R. S. 1894 (633, Horner’s R. S. 1897), that appeals in all cases must be taken within one year from the time the judgment is rendered.

To have a perfected appeal, a transcript must be filed in this court. For taking appeals in vacation two methods are prescribed by section 652 quoted above. To perfect an appeal by the first method, the notices provided for must be given, yet this alone will not constitute the appeal, but the transcript must be filed in this court. Johnson v. Stephenson, 104 Ind. 368. It is provided by rule two of this court, that when [118]*118{in appeal is taken and notice is given below, the transcript must be filed in the clerk’s office within sixty days from the time of the taking, of such appeal, and that if the transcript is not so filed the notice shall be without effect and the appeal treated as abandoned; but that the appellant may, however, afterward, and within the time limited by law, appeal, and in such case the appeal will be deemed to be taken as of the time the transcript is filed in the clerk’s office, and shall be governed as to notice, submission and the like matters by the rules and practice which govern in ordinary appeals prosecuted under the general statutory provisions.

When the second method for taking an appeal provided for in section 652, supra, is pursued, the appeal is perfected by the filing of the transcript with a proper assignment of errors thereon within the year, without the service of notice on the appellees. Tate v. Hamlin, 149 Ind. 94, 97, 105. In that case it was also held that service of the official notice provided for in the second branch of said section 652 upon the attorneys of the appellees and not upon the appellees, was without authority of law, and void, and was not legal notice of the appeal to the appellees; and that notice served only on the attorneys of the appellees was ineffectual notice within the meaning of the second clause of said rule thirty-five. In that case, for reasons stated in the opinion, which were regarded as affording an excuse for the appellant, who, pursuing a practice which had theretofore been tolerated, procured service on the appellee’s attorney, but not upon the appellee, the Supreme Court set aside the submission and directed the issuing of another notice. It was said, “A failure to comply with the rule in appeals hereafter in this respect, and a failure to take action in appeals heretofore taken within ninety days after [119]*119the announcement of this decision, may subject such appeals to dismissal under the rule.” The decision in that case was rendered on the 24th of September, 1895, and a petition to modify the opinion was denied November 19, 1895.

By a statute enacted in 1897 (Acts 1897, p. 277, section 640, Horner’s K. S. 1897), it was attempted to amend said section 652 so as to permit the service of the official notice upon the attorneys of record. This statute of 1897 was held to be invalid, because of defectiveness of its title, in O’Mara v. Wabash R. Co., 150 Ind. 648. The attorneys for the appellant, who do not rely upon the validity of that statute, caused the official notice herein to be issued pursuant to its provisions: This would seem to afford some excuse for the appellant, if the requirement of the second clause of said section 652 for the giving of notice can still be complied with. He sought service pursuant to a statute which had not been held invalid. He was not inexcusably negligent. Section 663, Burns’ R. S. 1894 (651, Horner’s B. S.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
51 N.E. 729, 21 Ind. App. 115, 1898 Ind. App. LEXIS 629, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dougherty-v-brown-indctapp-1898.