Eigenman v. Rockport Building & Loan Ass'n

79 Ind. 41
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 15, 1881
DocketNo. 7554
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 79 Ind. 41 (Eigenman v. Rockport Building & Loan Ass'n) 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
Eigenman v. Rockport Building & Loan Ass'n, 79 Ind. 41 (Ind. 1881).

Opinion

Morris, C.

— This suit is brought by the appellee upon a •contract made by it with the appellant. It is alleged, in the ■original complaint, that on the 29th day of December, 1876, the appellee was the owner of two mortgages executed to it by Lewis Gunsler, one of its members, on certain real estate; that the appellant held a junior mortgage on the same land; that he purchased of the appellee its mortgages and agreed to pay therefor in advance, all dues on principal, interest and lines that might become due and owing on said mortgages by Gunsler, up to July 12th, 1877, and also to pay the plaintiff below, after July 12th, 1877, the further sum of ten dollars on Friday of each w£ek, as dues on the principal of said mortgages, and twenty dollars on the first Friday in each month, as interest on said mortgages, in accordance with sec[43]*43tions 3, 4 and 7 of article 13 of the constitution and by-laws of the plaintiff, until all the outstanding shares of stock owed by the plaintiff should be paid, and the plaintiff dissolved; and further, that the appellant would pay the plaintiff all further sums or dues which might arise or be assessed by its board of directors against him. It is averred that $200 were legally assessed by the plaintiff against the appellant, which remains due and unpaid. It is averred that said mortgages were duly assigned to the appellant, who has failed *and refused to pay said sums of ten dollars due on Friday of each week, and said sum of twenty dollars, due on the first Friday of each month, in accordance with the constitution and by-laws of the plaintiff, though often requested so to do. It is also averred that there was chargeable to said mortgages assigned to the appellant, after July 12th, 1877, — the sum not stated; that the outstanding shares owed by the appellee are not fully redeemed in accordance with its constitution and bylaws; that there is due the plaintiff on said agreement $186.00. A bill of particulars is filed, showing the items of indebtedness claimed; also copies of said mortgages and assignments were filed with the complaint.

The appellant demurred to the complaint on the ground that it did not contain a cause of action. The demurrer was sustained. The record then proceeds as follows:

“And now comes the plaintiff and files his amended complaint, which said amendment is in these words and figures: Said defendant also at the same time expressly agreed that if said plaintiff would assign his [its] said mortgages he would pay said plaintiff all and any further dues which might arise or be assessed by the plaintiff’s board of directors, as aforesaid, against him. And the plaintiff avers that there is due and was legally assessed against said defendant, the sum of two hundred dollars, which remains unpaid.’ And also the defendant files his answer.”

The appellant filed an answer to the amended complaint in seven paragraphs. Afterward, upon leave of the court, the [44]*44appellant withdrew his answer and filed his demurrer to the amended complaint, which is set out in the record thus:

Which said demurrer is in words and figures as follows r
“ ‘ The defendant demurs to the plaintiffs complaint herein, and for ground of demurrer says, that said complaint does not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action against him. ‘DeBruler & Hatfield and D. Laird, for defendant.’”

The court overruled this demurrer, and the appellant excepted* He then refilled his answer. No reply seems to have been filed to the answer. The cause was submitted to a jury; verdict for the appellee. The appellant filed a motion for a new trial, which was overruled, and he excepted. He also filed a bill of exceptions purporting to contain all the evidence given in the cause.

The errors assigned ai’e numerous. The first is, that the court erred in overruling the demurrer to the complaint. The last, which includes all the others, is, that the court erred in overruling the appellant’s motion for a new trial.

The appellee asks us to dismiss the appeal because of the incompleteness of, and defects in, the record. He insists that the amended complaint is not in the record, and that the bill of exceptions does not contain all the evidence given in the cause, and is not, for that reason, any part of the transcript.

The amendment seems to have been made by wilting it on a separate paper. The record shows that this paper was filed as an amendment to the complaint. This, we think, may be done, and then the two papers — the original complaint and the amendment — will constitute the amended complaint. Where the whole structure of the complaint is changed, it is generally re-written, but where the amendment, as in this case, consists of an additional averment merely, we can see no reason for re-writing the whole complaint. The original complaint and the amendment being in the record, they should be treated as the amended complaint.

The bill of exceptions shows that an entry contained in a book, kept by the secretary of the appellee, was read in evi[45]*45•deuce, but it does not contain the entry, nor refer to it, except in the following words, part of the testimony of a witness on behalf of the appellee:

“ The book I have here contains the amounts due and paid by ,all shareholders, computed according to the terms of the mortgage. It includes the Gunsler loan. I kept the book, as secretary.” The plaintiff offered the book, so far as it related to Gunsler’s computation, in evidence, and the defendant objected because the defendant was not a member of, nor bound by, the entry, which the court overruled, and the entry was read. “One of the books of the association, in which it is his duty, at each meeting, to give every person that pays any thing, credit for it opposite his name. If they do not pay, the blank spaces denote that the sums charged against each person by the constitution and by-laws and the terms of their contract, are against them and unpaid, as here shown in this book.”

It is very clear that the bill of exceptions does not contain fhe entry thus read to the jury, nor all the evidence given in ■the cause, notwithstanding the formal statement at the conclusion that it does. For this reason, as held in the case of Sidener v. Davis, 69 Ind. 336, it can not be regarded as a part ■of the record. There is no place in the bill of exceptions ■designating where the entry should be copied into it, nor is ■the entry copied into it at all. In the case referred to, Judge Biddle says:

“We find copied in the transcript-what purports to be a bill of exceptions, covering many pages, in which various notes, receipts, contracts, bills of lading, letters, and depositions are mentioned but not copied therein. After the formal closing of the bill and the signature of the judge, these papers so mentioned are copied below in the transcript by the clerk, but have received no sanction by the signature of the judge. It is plain, therefore, that, although the bill of exceptions above the judge’s signature states that it contains all the evidence given in the case, yet the unfilled blanks show that it does not.”

The bill of exceptions not containing all the evidence given [46]*46in the case, no question as to the sufficiency of the evidence is. presented for decision here.

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Bluebook (online)
79 Ind. 41, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/eigenman-v-rockport-building-loan-assn-ind-1881.