Dudley v. Conely

84 N.W. 286, 125 Mich. 300, 1900 Mich. LEXIS 718
CourtMichigan Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 4, 1900
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 84 N.W. 286 (Dudley v. Conely) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Michigan Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dudley v. Conely, 84 N.W. 286, 125 Mich. 300, 1900 Mich. LEXIS 718 (Mich. 1900).

Opinion

Long, J.

Suit on replevin bond. The case in which the bond was given was commenced in the circuit court for Wayne county August 14, 1894, in which Clarence Conely and a copartner were plaintiffs, and Collins and Dudley defendants. In October, 1895, verdict was given, and judgment rendered thereon in February following. That case was removed to this court, whero it was decided in 1896 (Conely v. Dudley, 111 Mich. 122 [69 N. W. 151]), and the judgment reversed. In December, 1897, the case was again tried, and a verdict directed by the court below for the plaintiffs. Time to move for a new trial and settle a bill of exceptions was extended under stipulation, and from time to time thereafter the time to settle bill of exceptions was extended, as defendants contend, up to September, 1898. The bill of exceptions was signed and filed October 25, 1898. Plaintiffs contend that the bill was settled within the date covered by the stipulations. The case was removed to this court, where it was decided March 14, 1899, and the judgment of the court below reversed. Conely v. Collins, 119 Mich. 519 (78 N. W. 555, 44 L. R. A. 844). The case was again tried in the circuit court before a jury, who returned a verdict in favor of defendants, under the charge of the court, for $362.13.

It is contended here by defendants that, when that case was tried in the circuit court, the court permitted it to be consolidated with another 'case, and that but one jury sat in both cases, while plaintiffs contend that there was no consolidation. Whatever may have been the order of the circuit court as to the consolidation, it appears, upon the journal of the court that separate verdicts were rendered in each case; and the only proof that there was a consolidation is a memorandum upon the short-book kept by the clerk. It appears in the present case that the bond in replevin was signed by Conely & Co. as principals, and William Kemter and Christian Hosbach as sureties, and [302]*302was for the sum of $599.30. This replevin bond was in the usual form, running to the coroner of the county, and was assigned by him to the plaintiffs in this case. The plea was the general issue, with notice that defendants Hosbach. and Kemter would insist in their defense that they had been released and discharged of and from all liability upon said bond as sureties:

First. Because of the expiration of the time in which to settle bill of exceptions on the second trial, as such time was extended beyond the time stipulated.
Second. Because of the order consolidating both cases on the third trial.

There is some conflict of testimony as to whether the bill of exceptions was settled within the time stipulated, and it is contended by plaintiffs’ counsel that there was no proof in the case, except the short-book, that the. two cases were consolidated. It is further contended that, the journal entry showing separate verdicts, the case must be regarded as having been tried as a separate case.

Even if defendants’ counsel be correct in saying that the bill of exceptions was settled after the time expired under the stipulations, and that these two cases were tried as one, we do not think their contention can prevail that such facts would discharge the sureties on the bond. By the bond itself, the defendants promised that:

“If the said defendants shall recover judgment against them [Conely & Co., plaintiffs in the replevin suit], then, if the said Clarence Conely and Oscar Schloeman, plaintiffs, shall return the said property, if return thereof be adjudged, and shall pay to the defendants all such sums of money as may be recovered by such defendants against them in the said action, then the above obligation to be void; otherwise to remain in full force and virtue.”

The defendants herein took the property from the present plaintiffs, and judgment has been rendered in favor of the obligees in the bond.

Counsel for defendants rely upon Evers v. Sager, 28 Mich. 47; Fish v. Barbour, 43 Mich. 19 (4 N. W. 502); [303]*303Bullock v. Taylor, 39 Mich. 137 (33 Am. Rep. 356); People v. Brown, 2 Doug. 9; Bolton v. Nitz, 88 Mich. 354 (50 N. W. 291). We think none of these cases sustains their contention. In the first the surety upon an appeal bond from justice’s court was held to be released because, by stipulation between the parties, the declaration was amended in the circuit court by claiming an amount of damages beyond the jurisdiction of the justice. By this amendment the surety became liable to a larger amount than when the bond was executed by him, and it was properly claimed there that, in effect, the suit became a new suit in the circuit court; and it was held that the defendant, by his consent to the amendment, could not bind the sureties on the appeal bond. In Fish v. Barbour, supra, the action was on a bail bond in a capias proceeding. An amended declaration was filed in the case, so as' to describe the fraudulent representations differently from the first declaration by stating different localities and amounts of payment made by the plaintiff. It was held that the variance was fatal, and the sureties on the bond could not be made liable. In Bullock v. Taylor, supra, it was held that a surety for the payment of a promissory note was not bound to perform a collateral agreement between the parties, to wit, to pay attorney’s fees. In People v. Brown, supra, it was held that an alteration in a bond after it had been signed by some of the sureties, and without their consent, released them. In Bolton v. Nitz, supra,, it appeared that by stipulation of the parties in a replevin suit, and without the consent of the sureties on the bond, the writ was amended .so as to describe other property* and the declaration followed the amended writ. It was held that the sureties were not liable for the amount of a judgment obtained upon that declaration.

The matters complained of by defendants’ counsel, if they exist as claimed, amount merely to irregularities, which do not go to the jurisdiction. There is no claim that there was any fraud or collusion by which the rights of [304]*304the defendants were affected. The judgment is in the usual form of replevin. This is not like a case where a surety is simply to pay money if the principal fails to do so, but is a bond given in the course of a suit; and in such case the surety submits himself to the acts of the principal, and to the judgment as itself a legal consequence falling within the suretyship. 2 Black, Judgm. §§ 587, 671.

In the case of Robertson v. Davidson, 14 Minn. 554, the action was upon a replevin bond; and the sureties claimed that the judgment in the replevin case, which was not in the ordinary form of a judgment in an action of replevin, but was in the usual form of a judgment for the recovery of money only, released the sureties from their liability on the bond. It was said by the court:

“The undertaking is not collateral in its nature. It is in effect an affirmative obligation on the part of the signers of it to return the property to the defendant in the replevin action upon a judgment to that effect, and to pay him such sum as may for any cause be recovered against the plaintiff in that action.

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Bluebook (online)
84 N.W. 286, 125 Mich. 300, 1900 Mich. LEXIS 718, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dudley-v-conely-mich-1900.