Fanning v. Krapfl

26 N.W. 133, 68 Iowa 244
Supreme Court of Iowa·Decided December 21, 1885·Published·Cited by 14 cases

Opinion

Eeed, J.

1. original ice bypubiiinmuiiVoidename transposecl: other designation of petHiounto°f !Ud* I. It is 'alleged in the petition that the real estate in controversy was conveyed to W. E. I. Hopkins in trust for T. Phelia Boyd Hopkins and her children, and that plaintiff acqnired title thereto by a conveyance from said trustee. It is also alleged that while the title was in said trustee the defendaut procured the premises to be sold on a special execution issued on a judgment rendered in the circuit court of Dubuque county in favor of defendant and against John C. Hopkins for $393.98, and for the foreclosure of a mechanic’s lien, and that he became the purchaser thereof, and that a deed was executed to him by the sheriff under said sale. But it is alleged that said judgment was void for the reason that the court did not have jurisdiction of said T. Phelia Boyd Hopkins. It is shown [246] that said judgment was rendered on a service of the original notice by publication. A copy of said notice is set out in the petition, and it appears therefrom that the notice was directed to John C. Hopkins, P. T. B. Hopkins, his wife, and "W. R. I. Hopkins, trustee. It is also shown that the parties were described in the same manner in the petition. The cause has once before been in this court. See 61 Iowa, 417. That appeal was from an order of the district court sustaining a demurrer to the petition, and this court held that the service by publication of an original notice directed to P. T. B. Hopkins, wife of John C. Hopkins, did not give the court jurisdiction of T. Phelia Boyd Hopkins or T. P. B. Hopkins. It was also held that, as there was no express averment in the petition that T. P. B. Hopkins was in fact the wife of John C. Hopkins when the judgment was rendered, the case was not aided.by the recital in the notice describing P. T. B. Hopkins as the wife of John C. Hopkins. When the cause was remanded to the district court, the defendant ■ filed an answer in which it was alleged that T. P. B. Hopkins was in fact the wife of John C. Hopkins when said notice was published, and when the judgment was rendered, and that she was better known in Hilbuque county as the wife of John 0. Hopkins than by her Christian name, or by the initial letters of that name. But the district court struck this averment out of the answer on motion, thus holding, in effect, that the publication of the notice to P. T. B. Hopkins, wife of John 0. Hopkins, did not, conceding the truth of these allegations, give the court jurisdiction of T. P. B. Hopkins.

It is said in the former opinion “ that a published notice is not necessarily sufficient if it is such that the defendant, upon actually seeing it, would probably conclude that it was intended for him. The office of the notice is in part to give the pendency of the action notoriety. It should be such that others than the defendant, seeing it, and knowing the defendant, or knowing of him, would not probably be misled [247] by it as to the person for whom it was intended.” This, it seems to us, lays down the correct rule on the subject. The notice should describe the party to whom it is directed with such certainty as that neither he, nor other persons acquainted with or knowing him, could reasonably be misled by it as to the person for whom it was intended; and it seems to us that, conceding the truth of the allegations stricken from the answer, the notice in question was sufficient to give the court jurisdiction of T. P. B. Hopkins. If the notice had come to her attention, she would have learned from it that it was intended for the wife of John C. Hopkins, which was the name of her own husband, and that it related to an interest of which ~W. R. I. Hopkins, who held the property now in question in trust for her, was trustee. She could hardly have failed to learn from it that she was the identical person for whom it was intended, and she could not reasonably have been misled by the transposition of the initial letters of the Christian name which occurred in it. If the same notice had been served personally upon her, there could be no question, we think, but that the court would have acquired jurisdiction of her by the service; and any notice whicli would give jurisdiction if personally served upon the party is good when served by publication, if that publicity of the pendency of the action which the law intends is thereby given. That is, a description iii the notice of the person intended, whiqh would be sufficient if the service was personal, is also sufficient when the service is by publication, if those who know the person intended would naturally recognize him bjr that description. Publicity is required to be given to the pend-ency of the action in the county where it is brought, for the notice is required to be published in that county, if a newspaper is there published in which the publication can be made. If it be true, then, as was alleged, that Mrs. Hopkins was better known in Dubuque county as the wife of John C. ITopkins than by her Christian name, or by the initial letters of that name, a notice describing her simply as the wife [248] of John 0. Iloplcins, published in that county, would, give greater publicity to the pendency of the action than one correctly describing her by her Christian name, or by the initial letters of that name; and those who thus knew her would not be misled by the transposition of the initial letters which occurred in the published notice. It seems to us, therefore, that the publication of the notice accomplished every purpose which the law intends to accomplish by the service of a notice in that manner. The allegations which are stricken out of the answer bring the case within the principal of Buchanan v. Roy's Lessee, 2 Ohio St., 251, cited in the former opinion.

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Fanning v. Krapfl, 26 N.W. 133, 68 Iowa 244 (iowa 1885).

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