Eastes v. Eastes

79 Ind. 363
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 15, 1881
DocketNo. 8595
StatusPublished
Cited by32 cases

This text of 79 Ind. 363 (Eastes v. Eastes) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Eastes v. Eastes, 79 Ind. 363 (Ind. 1881).

Opinion

Howk, J.

— This suit was commenced by the appellee, on the 14th day of October, 1879, to obtain a divorce from the' appellant, her husband, the custody of their infant son, and' alimony in the sum of $5,000. The appellant appeared, and such proceedings were had in the cause as that, on the 29th day of January, 1880, the issues joined were tried by the court,, and a finding was made for the appellee, that the allegations of her complaint were true, and entitled her to the relief therein demanded, and the court assessed her alimony in the-sum of $300.00, and the amount necessary to maintain the infant son of the parties at the sum of $1,200. Thereupon the-court rendered a judgment and decree dissolving, annulling' and setting aside the marriage contract, theretofore entered into and then subsisting between the said parties, and for the payment of said alimony and costs, and requiring the appellant, to pay the appellee for the support and education of their infant son the sum of $100 on the first day of February, in each year, during the period of twelve years.

[365]*365Before considering any of the questions presented by the appellant’s assignment of errors, it is proper that we should •dispose of a point made in argument by appellee’s counsel. The record shows that, after the circuit court had rendered the ■decree of divorce in this cause, on the appellee’s motion, the court ordered that the appellant should pay into court $50 for the appellee, to enable her to prosecute this case before the Supreme Court, in case the same should be appealed by him to this court. The clerk of the court below has appended his certificate to the transcript of the record, to the effect that the appellant had paid no money into his hands for the use of the appellee. Upon this showing, the appellee’s counsel asks that this court will dismiss this appeal. Conceding, without deciding, that it is sufficiently shown that the appellant is prosecuting this appeal in contempt of the order of the circuit court, we are of the opinion that this action of the appellant would not authorize us to dismiss his appeal. The circuit court has full power by law to enforce its orders, and to punish, if necessary, a wilful disobedience thereof. But we know of no law which would authorize this court to dismiss the appeal in this case, for the reason that the appellant had failed, for some cause not shown, to comply with the order of the court below.

It appears from the record of this cause, that the appellee’s complaint was filed in term time, to wit, during the September term, 1879, of the court below, with the following endorsement thereon, signed by her attorney, to wit: The clerk will issue summons in the within cause, returnable on the 24th of October, 1879, and set said cause down for trial on said day.”

Neither the summons nor the return thereof appears in the transcript before us, and it does not appear that there was any appearance or any action had in the cause until the January term, 1880, of said court. On the 10th day of that term, to wit, on January 15th, 1880, the appellant, by his counsel, entered a special appearance, and moved the court to quash the summons issued in said cause, which motion was overruled, and to this ruling he excepted, and filed his bill of exceptions. [366]*366This decision of the court is assigned as error by the appellant.

The first point made by the appellant’s counsel, in his brief of this cause, is that the act of March 6th, 1877, amending section 315 of the civil code of 1852, in regard to process or publication in civil actions, is not applicable to suits or proceedings for divorces. In said section as amended, it was-provided that the plaintiff might, when he filed his complaint before or during any term of the court, fix the day during such term, by endorsement thereof on his complaint, upon which the defendant should appear, which day, when so fixed, should be stated in the summons issued, and the action should be docketed accordingly. It was further provided in said amended section, that if the summons should be personally served ten days before the day so fixed, or if publication should be made for three weeks, thirty days before such day, such action should thereupon stand for issue and trial at such term, and the court should have jurisdiction to hear and determine the same, as if such summons had been served or such publication made before the first day of the term. Acts of 1877, Reg. Sess., p. 105. This amended section was substantially re-enacted, with some additional provisions, as section 367 of the civil code of 3 881, and is now section 516 of Revised Statutes of 1881. We agree with the appellant’s counsel in the opinion that the amended section 315 had and has no application whatever to suits or proceedings for divorces. Such suits or proceedings were governed and controlled by the provisions of the act of March 10th, 1873, “regulating the granting of divorces,” etc. 2 R. S. 1876, p. 324.

In section 13 of said act, it was provided as follows: “The cause shall stand for issue and trial at the first term of the court after the summons has been personally served upon the defendant ten days, or publication has been made thirty days before the first day of such term.” 2 R. S. 1876, p. 329. This is now section 1037 of the Revised Statutes of 1881, p. 198. But we do not agree with appellant’s counsel in his conclusion, that, because the summons in this-case was issued in. [367]*367term time and made returnable to a future day in the same term, it was therefore inoperative and wholly void. This seems to us to be clearly a non sequitur. It has always been the law, in a free country, that the courts were open at all times for the institution of suits, as well in term time as in vacation; and where, as in this case, the suit was commenced in term time, the process issued would be made returnable at that term, unless otherwise ordered. In such cases, if the process were served either before or after the close of the term, the effect of such service would be the same, namely, the continuance of the cause, by operation of law, until the next succeeding term of the court. In the case at bar, the appellee made no effort to prosecute her suit, and the appellant did not appear therein, specially or otherwise, at or during the term of the court in which he had been summoned; but the cause seems to have been then continued, and, in the absence of anything appearing to .the contrary, we may reasonably assume, for the reason that it appeared that the summons had not been personally served upon the appellant ten days before the first day of the then term of the court. The summons and the service thereof, as it seems to us, were sufficient notice to the appellant, under the law, of the pendency of appellee’s suit for the January term, 1880, of the circuit court.

The appellant’s counsel further insists, that the summons ought to have been quashed, and the suit dismissed, for the reasons assigned in his written motion therefor. These reasons were, in substance, as follows:

1. Because the affidavit, filed with appellee’s complaint, was sworn to before a notary public, and not before the clerk of the circuit court, as contemplated by the statute;

2. Because said affidavit was dated on April 27th, 1879, nearly six months prior to the date of the filing of said ■ complaint and affidavit; and,

3. Because there was no affidavit filed with appellee’s complaint, showing that she was a resident of Hendricks county, Indiana, at the time she commenced this suit.

[368]

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Lowry v. Lowry
90 So. 2d 852 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 1956)
Nelson v. Nelson
121 N.E.2d 883 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1954)
Bitner v. Bitner
91 N.E.2d 169 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1950)
Evans v. Evans
23 N.E.2d 270 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1939)
Wolfe v. Wolfe
198 S.E. 209 (West Virginia Supreme Court, 1938)
Moss v. Moss
197 N.E. 894 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1935)
Sachs v. Sachs
185 N.E. 291 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1933)
Boland v. Boland
182 N.E. 471 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1932)
Payne v. Payne
169 N.E. 475 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1930)
Strecker v. Strecker
154 N.E. 503 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1926)
Gillie v. Fleming
133 N.E. 737 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1922)
Dupes v. Dupes
184 P. 425 (California Court of Appeal, 1919)
Hoffman v. Hoffman
119 N.E. 18 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1918)
Miller v. Miller
104 N.E. 588 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1914)
Cooper v. Cooper
99 N.E. 782 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1912)
Wills v. Wills
96 N.E. 763 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1911)
Stewart v. Stewart
94 N.E. 564 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1911)
Smith v. Biesiada
90 N.E. 1009 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1910)
Hinkle v. Lovelace
102 S.W. 1015 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1907)
Matthews v. Wilson
67 N.E. 280 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1903)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
79 Ind. 363, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/eastes-v-eastes-ind-1881.