Eikenberry v. McFall

36 N.E.2d 27, 33 Ohio Law. Abs. 525
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedJanuary 14, 1941
DocketNo 103
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 36 N.E.2d 27 (Eikenberry v. McFall) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Eikenberry v. McFall, 36 N.E.2d 27, 33 Ohio Law. Abs. 525 (Ohio Ct. App. 1941).

Opinions

[527]*527OPINION

By BARNES, J.

The above entitled cause is now being determined as an error proceeding by reason of plaintiffs’ appeal on questions of law from the judgment of the Court of Common Pleas of Preble County, Ohio.

First, we are presented with a motion filed by counsel for the defendantsap-pellees, asking that appeal proceedings be dismissed on the claimed ground that no bill of exceptions has been filed by appellants in our court.

We have reason to believe that it very frequently happens that bills of exceptions are not properly filed in our court due to the fact that counsel and Clerks of Court are not familiar with the requisite steps to be taken. The following is the technique to be used in filing bills of exceptions:

Counsel for appellant procures from the Court Reporter, or prepares himself, in narrative form, a bill of exceptions and files the same with the Clerk of the Common Pleas Court. Thereafter, the Clerk notifies opposite counsel that such bill of exceptions is on file and the statutory time is given to file objections. At the expiration of this time, the Clerk presents the bill to the trial court, and thereafter the trial court has a statutory time within which to correct, allow and return such bill to the Clerk of the Common Pleas Court. Thereafter, counsel for appellant should file praecipe with the Clerk, requesting that the approved bill be •filed with the Court of Appeals. It is probable that verbal notice when complied with requesting such filing in the Court of Appeals, would be sufficient.

In the instant case there is no question that a bill of exceptions was prepared by the Court Reporter, delivered to counsel for appellant, filed with the Clerk of the Common Pleas Court, the necessary steps taken through which it was finally allowed by the Common .Pleas Court and returned to che Clerk’s office by such court on June 17. 1940.

It is a controversial question whether or not the bill of exceptions was filed in our court within the fifty days required under Rule VII of our Rules of Court. It is conclusively shown through the Court of Appeals’ Appearance Docket and otherwise, that the Clerk of Courts did mark the bill of exceptions “filed” on such docket on June 17, 1940.

It is the claim of counsel for appellants that this was done at their instance, in their presence .and on oral request made to the Clerk. Tne entry of such filing was erased by the Deputy County Clerk, and claim is made, supported by affidavit, chat when such bill was marked “filed” on the Court of Appeals’ Appearance Docket, he was not aware of the rule that such filing could only be upon request of appellant or his counsel, and that upon being informed of this rule on the day following, by counsel for appellee, he erased it but not so completely but that it is plainly discernible.

Affidavits are filed pro and con, which present a very difficult factual question for determination.

With considerable doubt as to the correctness of our conclusion, we have concluded to overrule the motion to dismiss and consider the case on the merits. It might be correct to state that we are consciously or unconsciously moved in this holding by reason of the fact that on consideration on the merits we find it necessary to affirm the judgment of the lower court.

Under any situation we would not grant'plaintiffs’ motion to dismiss, but the proper procedure would be to affirm the judgment where the claimed errors are only manifest through a bill of exceptions and such a bill of exceptions can not be considered.

As heretofore indicated, we are considering the bill of exceptions as filed under date of June 17, 1940.

The action is one to contest the last will and testament of Frank Eikenberry, a former resident of Camden, Preble County, Ohio, whose death occurred on the 12th day of November, 1938, at the age .of seventy-two years. Mr. Eikenberry had been a successful and prosperous business man, engaged [528]*528in the furniture business in Camden for a number of years, and at the time of his death had' accumulated an estate of considerable size. The decedent was married early in life and celebrated their fiftieth anniversary early in the year of his death. They had no children. Up until the date of the death of his wife in April, 1938, the family consisted entirely of decedent and his wife. Following the death of his wife, Mr. Eikenberry became seriously sick, making it necessary, on May 11, 1938, to take him to the Mercy Hospital, at Hamilton, Ohio, where he remained until the 27th day of May, 1938, when he was taken to the Cincinnati Sanitorium, at College Hill, Cincinnati, Ohio. While Mr. Eikenberry was confined at the Mercy Hospital at Hamilton, Ohio, according to credible testimony of all witnesses, the decedent became mentally sick to the point that he was described as being of unsound mind and insane, and on the 16th day of June, 1938, after he had been taken to the Cincinnati Sanitorium, at College Hill, a guardian was appointed for Mr. Eikenberry by the Probate Court of Preble County, Ohio, upon the application of Mr. Frank Shuey, his personal attorney and business associate.

Mr. Eikenberry was released from the Sanitorium at College Hill on or about the 9th day of July, 1938, and on the 10th day of September, 1938, he personally made application in the Probate Court for termination of the guardianship. Following the necessary statutory proceedings, a hearing was had, and on September 14, 1938, the Probate Court terminated such guardianship.

On the 27tb day of September, 1938, Mr. Frank Eikenberry, at his home in the village of Camden, Ohio, executed the alleged will in controversy through contest proceedings in the instant case.

The case was tried m the Common Pleas Court. In the first trial the jury disagreed and were discharged. In the second trial, the jury, on a vote of nine, returned a verdict sustaining the will. Motion for new trial, was filed, overruled and judgment entered on the verdict.

This is the final order through which the notice of appeal lodges the case in our court.

The assignment of errors is set out under eight separately numbered specifications. Only three of such specifications are argued specifically in appellants’ brief, although they do say in a general way that the other claimed errors are relied upon.

We will now take up the claimed errors in the same order as presented in the briefs of counsel:

“Specification No. 3. The court erred in the rejection of testimony offered by the appellants, to the rejection of which appellants duly excepted at the time.”

The testimony rejected which counsel for appellants claim was prejudicially erroneous were the hospital records of the Mercy Hospital, of Hamilton, Ohio, and the Middletown Hospital, of Middletown, Ohio. Me have heretofore referred to the decedent’s being confined in Mercy Hospital between the dates of May 11 and 27, 1938. Decedent entered the Middletown Hospital October 16, 1938, and remained therein until the time of his death on November 12, 1938.

The entire files of the hospital records were properly identified and offered in evidence as single files for each hospital, and not separately page for page or otherwise.

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Bluebook (online)
36 N.E.2d 27, 33 Ohio Law. Abs. 525, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/eikenberry-v-mcfall-ohioctapp-1941.