Fears v. Riley

49 S.W. 836, 148 Mo. 49, 1899 Mo. LEXIS 120
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedFebruary 15, 1899
StatusPublished
Cited by25 cases

This text of 49 S.W. 836 (Fears v. Riley) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fears v. Riley, 49 S.W. 836, 148 Mo. 49, 1899 Mo. LEXIS 120 (Mo. 1899).

Opinion

MARSHALL, J.

On the 16th of December, 1890, Laura Riley, a resident of Audrain county, filed a suit in the circuit court of Audrain county, against Tobe Lee, a minor, H. L. Preston and I. H. Laveene, claiming ten thousand dollars damages against defendants, for publishing in the Kansas City Sunday Sun, and circulating a libel concerning her. The defendants were served with process, appeared and pleaded. A guardian ad litem was appointed for Lee, the minor, and he filed a general denial. On June 10th, 1891, defendants Preston and Laveene filed an answer, which was, first, a general denial; and, second, mitigating circumstances, and on the same day filed a motion for security for costs. On June 1st, 1891, defendants Preston and Laveene filed a motion for change of venue, which was granted on June 17th, and the cause sent to Randolph county circuit court, at Moberly. At the September term, 1891, of'the Randolph circuit court, the cause was continued by consent. At the February term of said Randolph circuit court, to wit, on February 1st, 1892, plaintiff filed an amended petition, bringing in John 0. Fears, George Bilbro, George O. McGuigan and 0. R. Nourse as codefendants. On February 23d, 1892, an alias summons with a copy of the amended petition attached was issued by the Randolph circuit court against John 0. Fears, directed to the sheriff of the city of St. Louis, returnable to the September term, 1892, and the cause was continued to the September term, 1892. This summons was served on Fears, personally, in St. Louis on the 24th of February, 1892. At the opening of the September .term, 1892, the sheriff had not returned the summons to Fears, and an order was entered directing the clerk to issue an alias summons for Fears, and the cause was continued to the February term, 1893. Later, during the September term, 1892, to wit, about September 26th, 1892, the sheriff of the city of St. [57]*57Louis, returned the summons against Rears, duly served, and thereupon the plaintiff directed the clerk of the Randolph circuit court not to proceed with the order for an alias summons to Rears. At the February term, 1893, the cause was continued to the September term, 1893, and at that term it was continued to the February term, 1894. At the last named term, plaintiff dismissed the cause as to Tobe Lee, George Bilbro, George O. McGuigan and R. 0. Nourse, took judgment by default against H. L. Preston, I. H. Laveene and John 0. Fears, and, upon inquiry, her damages were assessed at $10,000. Afterwards an execution was issued against Fears, directed to the sheriff of the city of St. Louis, who was proceeding to levy under it, when Fears instituted this action in the circuit court of Randolph county, making Laura Riley, George Robertson, her attorney, J. R. Lowell, clerk of the circuit court of Randolph county, and Patrick M. Stead, sheriff of the city of St. Louis, defendants. The petition alleges the institution of the libel suit in Audrain county, and states, “that in order to cause the circuit court of Audrain county to exercise jurisdicton in said action said Laura Riley, fraudulently and by means of false representation, imposed upon the court in this1st, she alleged residence in Audrain county, when in fact she resided in St. Louis; 2d, she made Tobe Lee, a minor child, who was a resident of Audrain county, a party defendant, for the fraudulent purpose of obtaining jurisdiction in Audrain county; 3d, she imposed on the court, by fraudulently using its criminal process to arrest Preston and Laveene in Kansas City, under a warrant for criminal libel, bring them to Audrain county, and while thus there, have them served with summons in the civil suit; that after the change of venue to Randolph county the plaintiff filed an amended petition, enlarged her claim for damages to $25,000 and brought in new defendants, “well knowing that said Tobe Lee was not liable thereon, but was made a party solely for [58]*58the fraudulent purpose of deceiving the court and inducing it to continue to exercise jurisdiction, as she afterwards, to wit, on February 8th, 1894, voluntarily dismissed her said action as to Tobe Lee,” and at the same time obtained judgment against the other defendants; 6th, that the judgment was unauthorized and premature, because there was a motion for security for costs pending and undis-posed of, and no default could therefore legally be granted; 7 th, that Fears filed no answer in the libel case because he relied .on the advice of his counsel that the order for an alias summons against him superseded the summons that had been served on him in February, 1892, and that he was waiting to be served with the alias summons; 8th, that he has a good defense to. the libel suit, and that the court heard no evidence on the trial thereof tending to connect him with or make him liable for the libel. The prayer of the petition is that the judgment be adjudged null and void and the defendants be enjoined from enforcing it.

The answer denied the allegations of fraud and asserted the validity of the judgment.

The circuit court heard the evidence — to which all necessary reference will hereafter be made in the course of this' opinion — and entered judgment for defendants.

Plaintiff appeals.

I.

It is the settled law in our State that in order to set aside a judgment for fraud, even in a direct proceeding, it must appear that fraud was practiced in the very act of obtaining the judgment. [Lewis v. Williams, Admr., 54 Mo. 200.] It is not enough that there was fraud in the cause of action on which the judgment is founded and which could have been interposed as a defense (unless its interposition was prevented as a defense by fraud): [Payne v. [59]*59O’Shea, 84 Mo. 129; Murphy v. DeFrance, 105 Mo. 53; Oxley Stave Co. v. Butler Co., 121 Mo. 614.] The judgment must be concocted in fraud, and the fraud must be actual fraud as contradistinguished from a judgment obtained on false evidence. [Moody v. Peyton, 135 Mo. 482.] These principles and these cases have lately been reviewed and approved by this court in Hamilton v. McLean, 139 Mo. 678, and in Bates v. Hamilton, 144 Mo. 1.

Apply these tests to the allegations of the petition, and we have this result: It may have been false that Laura Riley was a resident of Audrain county, but that was a fact to be tried in that case, which was open to denial and contest by the defendant, and no more divests the court of jurisdiction or renders its judgment void on the ground of fraud than any other fact falsely asserted or testified to in the case. It may have been that she joined Tobe Lee, a minor, as a party defendant so as to be able to institute the suit in the county in which she lived and one of the defendants is found, under section 2009, R. S. 1889, but this was no fraud on the court, because the. court was informed that Lee was a minor, and it appointed a guardian ad litem for him, and he filed an answer. Moreover it is wholly a mistake to say that an infant is not liable in an action for tort, e. g. assault, false imprisonment, libel, slander, etc. [Conway v. Reed, 66 Mo. 346; Morgan v. Cox, 22 Mo. 374; Addison on Torts (6 Ed.), p. 155, par. 101; Cooley on Torts (2 Ed.), p. 120.] Tobe Lee was liable in this case because he circulated the libel. [Townshend on S. & L. (4 Ed.), pp. 101, 102.] No fraud Avas, therefore, perpetrated in the very act of procuring the judgment in this respect.

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Bluebook (online)
49 S.W. 836, 148 Mo. 49, 1899 Mo. LEXIS 120, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fears-v-riley-mo-1899.