First Wisconsin National Bank of Milwaukee v. Carpenter

259 N.W. 836, 218 Wis. 30, 1935 Wisc. LEXIS 137
CourtWisconsin Supreme Court
DecidedApril 2, 1935
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 259 N.W. 836 (First Wisconsin National Bank of Milwaukee v. Carpenter) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wisconsin Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
First Wisconsin National Bank of Milwaukee v. Carpenter, 259 N.W. 836, 218 Wis. 30, 1935 Wisc. LEXIS 137 (Wis. 1935).

Opinion

Fritz, J.

Defendant contends that the order denying plaintiff’s motion to strike out the answer as frivolous is not appealable. Such a contention does not appear to have been made and ruled on by this court since the decisions in Gianella v. Bigelow, 92 Wis. 267, 65 N. W. 1030, and Jacobs v. Beebe, 95 Wis. 389, 70 N. W. 468, although, in several cases, in which the right to appeal directly from such an order was not challenged, the orders were reviewed. See [32]*32Home Acres Co. v. Swenson-Dibble L. Co. 179 Wis. 556, 192 N. W. 42; Fleischmann v. Reynolds, 216 Wis. 117, 256 N. W. 778; and also Slama v. Dehmel, 216 Wis. 224, 257 N. W. 163, 167, in which we said that an order granting a motion to strike out an entire defense as sham may be reviewed by this court on the ground that it is in effect an order sustaining a demurrer. True, in Wisconsin F. & F. B. Co. v. Southern S. Co. 188 Wis. 383, 387, 206 N. W. 204, the right of a defendant to have such an order reviewed was challenged, but as that review was sought on defendant’s motion for review filed by it, under sec. 3070, Stats, (now sec. 274.34), in connection with the appeal from a judgment, the order was held reviewable because that statute authorizes such a review, on an appeal from a judgment, of “any intermediate order . . . which involves the merits and necessarily affects the judgment.” However, that decision does not hold that there can be an appeal from such an order, or a review thereof, independently of an appeal from a judgment.

It is also true that an order striking an entire defense on a motion which specifies as grounds therefor some ground listed in the statutes (secs. 263.17, 263.22) as ground for demurrer, has, for some purposes, been deemed in its legal effect as an order sustaining a demurrer. See the cases cited above and Milwaukee Steamship Co. v. Milwaukee, 83 Wis. 590, 595, 53 N. W. 839, 18 L. R. A. 353; Williams v. Journal Co. 211 Wis. 362, 247 N. W. 435. However, tin-less it expressly appears upon the face of such a motion that it is in fact based upon one of those statutory grounds for demurrer, so that it is virtually a demurrer, and the designation thereof as a motion, instead of as a demurrer, is merely a misnomer and can therefore be disregarded, there is no real basis for holding, on an appeal from an order entered thereon, that it is an order sustaining or overruling a demurrer, and that therefore an appeal therefrom is authorized under sub. (3) of sec. 274.33, Stats.

[33]*33It is well established that “the right to appeal in civil proceedings is purely statutory, and does not exist at all except when, and then only to the extent, granted by statute.” Golden v. Green Bay Metropolitan Sewerage Dist. 210 Wis. 193, 246 N. W. 505; David Adler & Sons Co. v. Maglio, 198 Wis. 24, 223 N. W. 89; Witt v. Wonser, 195 Wis. 593, 219 N. W. 344; Gianella v. Bigelow, supra; and that “the court has no jurisdiction to entertain an appeal from a non-appealable order.” Gilbert v. Hoard, 201 Wis. 572, 230 N. W. 720; Wiesmann v. Shanley, 124 Wis. 431, 102 N. W. 932. For some time prior to the enactment of ch. 212, Laws of 1895, which amended subd. 4 of sec. 3069, S. & B. Ann. Stats, (now sec. 274.33), that subdivision expressly authorized an appeal from an order for “judgment on application therefor, on account of the frivolousness of a demurrer, answer or reply, or strikes off such demurrer, answer or reply, on account of the frivolousness thereof.” However, by ch. 212, Laws of 1895, that provision in subd. 4 of sec. 3069, S. & B. Ann. Stats., was repealed. Shortly thereafter, in Gianella v. Bigelow, supra, on a challenge of the right to appeal from an order granting a motion to strike out a demurrer as frivolous, the appellant contended, that “inasmuch as the motion to strike out under the practice established in this state brings the demurrer up for a hearing on the merits to all intents and purposes the same as if the issue was brought up for a hearing on regular notice of argument, the order should be held to be appealable, under subd. 3 of the revised section, which gives the right of appeal from an order overruling or sustaining a demurrer.” This court, however, dismissed the appeal because the order was not an ap-pealable order, since the amendment of subd. 4 of sec. 3069, S. & B. Ann. Stats., by ch. 212, Laws of 1895. In that connection the court said,—

“. . . it is obvious that the section was amended for the very purpose of restricting appeals. The right formerly ex[34]*34isted from an order striking out a demurrer on motion as frivolous, independent of the right from the order sustaining or overruling the demurrer. Therefore, though the effect of the two orders is substantially the same, if the issue is brought to a hearing on regular notice for the first day of the term, general or special, an appeal may be taken from the order sustaining or overruling the demurrer. Tf a party sees fit to resort to the more summary method, by motion to strike out as frivolous, the order entered thereon will not be appealable.”

Thus, although the court recognized that the legal effect of the order striking out the demurrer as frivolous on a motion was substantially the same as the effect of an order overruling the demurrer would have been, that similarity in effect was not considered sufficient to render an order entered on such a motion appealable.

That decision was followed in Jacobs v. Beebe, 95 Wis. 389, 70 N. W. 468, by dismissing an appeal from a similar order. Those decisions have never been expressly overruled, and there has been no restoration by statute of the right (formerly recognized in Milwaukee Steamship Co. v. Milwaukee, 83 Wis. 590, 595, 53 N. W. 839) to appeal from an order entered on a motion to strike a pleading as frivolous. Consequently, in the absence of statutory authorization for an appeal from such an order, and nothing to, disclose, on the face of either the motion or the order, that it was actually based on some ground for demurrer, because of which it was in legal effect an order sustaining or overruling a demurrer, it must be held that it is not an appealable order. It follows that, as neither the motion nor the order under consideration discloses on its face that it was based on some ground which constituted ground for demurrer, the order denying that motion is not an appealable order, and that, therefore, the appeal therefrom must be dismissed.

On the other hand, the plaintiff was entitled to appeal from the order overruling its demurrer to the counterclaim. The demurrer was based, among other grounds, on the [35]*35ground that the cause of action alleged in the counterclaim was not pleadable as a counterclaim. The cause of action alleged in the complaint is in contract to recover the balance owing on a promissory note, dated January 13, 1933, and originally secured by collateral. In his counterclaim, the defendant alleges facts which he contends state a cause of action- for fraud.

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Bluebook (online)
259 N.W. 836, 218 Wis. 30, 1935 Wisc. LEXIS 137, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/first-wisconsin-national-bank-of-milwaukee-v-carpenter-wis-1935.