Fisk v. Henarie

13 P. 760, 15 Or. 89, 1887 Ore. LEXIS 54
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedApril 19, 1887
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 13 P. 760 (Fisk v. Henarie) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fisk v. Henarie, 13 P. 760, 15 Or. 89, 1887 Ore. LEXIS 54 (Or. 1887).

Opinion

Steahan, J.

This is an appeal from an order of the Circuit Court of Multnomah County granting a new trial, and also from the order of said court, overruling appellant’s motion for judgment on the verdict.

It is the third appeal in this cause. The ruling of this court on the first appeal is reported in 13 Or. 156; on the second appeal in 13 Pac. Rep. 193, to which reference is made for a fuller statement of the facts.

On the present appeal, two questions have been argued, and are presented for our consideration: 1st, "Whether or not an appeal will lie to this from an order of the lower court, granting a new trial; and 2d, whether the defendants’ motion for a new trial was pending before said court at the time the same was allowed. These questions I will now consider in the order stated. The right to an appeal depends entirely upon the statute. If the statute does not confer it, it does not exist. (In re Goldsmith, 12 Or. 414; Kearney v. Snodgrass, 12 Or. 311; Town of La Fayette v. Clark, 9 Or. 225.)

Order granting a neto trial not appealable. The appellant relies upon section 525 of the Civil Code, which is as follows: “ A judgment or decree may be reviewed as prescribed in this title, and not otherwise. An order affecting a substantial right, and which in effect determines the action or suit so as to prevent a judgment or decree therein, or a final order affecting- a substantial right, and made in a proceeding, after judgment or [91]*91decree, for the purpose of being reviewed, shall be deemed a judgment or decree.”

It is claimed on the part of the appellant that the order of the court, granting a new trial and setting aside the verdict, is au order affecting a substantial right, and which in effect determines the action or suit, so as to prevent a judgment or decree therein.

It was held by this court in Kearney v. Snodgrass, 12 Or. 311, “that an order granting a new trial does not affect a substantial right”; nor do I think it is one which in effect determines the action or suit, so as to prevent a judgment or decree therein. The action is still pending and undetermined in the court below. The plaintiff, if he saw proper, might bring the same on for trial there, and recover such sum as might be awarded him upon the trial.

This statement of the case seems sufficient to show that the order in question has not determined the action so as to prevent a judgment therein. This construction is in accordance with that given a similar statute in Artman v. West Point Manuf. Co. 16 Neb. 572. The court there said: “By the terms of the statutes above quoted, the order sought to be reviewed must not only be an order affecting a substantial right, but it must be one which in effect terminates the action and prevents a judgment. The order in question does not do this. By this statute there are two classes of orders which may be reviewed by this court. One is where the order affects a substantial right in an action, and in effect determines the action, and the other is an order affecting a substantial right in a special proceeding.It is quite clear that an order granting a new trial during the term in which the verdict of a jury is returned cannot be said to belong to the second class of orders mentioned in the section above quoted, and it is equally obvious that it must be classed with the first. If that be true, we fail to see how it can be treated as a final order, or one which determines the action. A final order is one which disposes of the cause either by sending it out of the court before a hearing is had on the merits, or after a hearing on the merits, either granting or refusing the relief demanded by the [92]*92plaintiff/’ (Freeman on Judgments, §§ 29, 30, 36.) So in Conrad v. Runnels, 23 Ohio St. 601, the principle is thus stated: “A motion for a new trial is addressed to the sound discretion of the court; and although it is well-settled law that error will lie in a proper case where a new trial has been refused, we know of no case in which it has been held to lie, where a new trial has been allowed and had, and wherein the court had power to grant a new trial, and its order granting such new trial is not made ground of error by statutory provision. So in a case where a motion for a new trial is made after judgment, a party cannot appeal from such judgment while the motion is still pending and undetermined. In such case the judgment is not final.” (Kinney v. South and North Alabama R. R. Co. 73 Ala. 536.) So, also, in State v. Perry, 4 Baxt. 438, under a statute which expressly authorized the Supreme Court to grant new trials, or to correct any error of the Circuit Court in granting or refusing the same. It was held that this power could only be exercised on an appeal from a final judgment in the cause, and the same construction was adhered to in King v. Miller, 8 Baxt. 382. In this case the court says: The statute does not mean to give appeals from the action of a court simply granting a new trial, nor to change the long-established rule that appeals to this court can only be had from final judgments. This being an attempt to so appeal, the case is not before us, and we can take no jurisdiction of it. And in Kansas, an order of a District Court setting aside a judgment is not an appealable order. Such an order leaves the cause still pending in the lower court, and is not final. (McCulloch v. Dodge, 8 Kan. 476; Kermeyer v. Kansas Pacific R. R. Co. 18 Kan. 215.) So, also, in Florida, an order of the trial court granting a new trial is not appealable, though the action of the court in granting or refusing a new trial may be reviewed upon an appeal from the final judgment. (Staples v. Hartridge, 8 Fla. 426; Dawkins v. Carroll, 5 Fla. 407.) The same principle is, in effect, announced by this court in Kearney v. Snodgrass, supra. And these principles seem to be elementary.

■ In Freeman on Judgments, section 34, it is said: “ The general [93]*93rule recognized by the courts of the United States, and by the courts of most, if not all of the States, is that no judgment or decree will be regarded as final within the meaning of the statutes in reference to appeals, unless all the issues of law and fact necessary to be determined were determined, and the case completely disposed of, so far as the court had power to dispose of it.”

The respondents submitted a motion to dismiss the appeal in this cause, which was argued and submitted by direction of the court in connection with the other questions presented for our consideration. I think, therefore, that the motion to dismiss the appeal ought to be sustained.

A motion for a new trial not waived, by motion for judgment non obstante. But this would leave undetermined the main question involved and presented on the appeal, and that is, whether or not, as a matter of law, the defendants* motion for a new trial was pending in the court below on the eighteenth day of December, 1886. It is conceded that if said motion was then pending before that court, whatever ruling the court made thereon is not reviewable on this appeal, for the reason it was a matter resting on the sound discretion of the trial court.

I therefore think proper to indicate the conclusions I have reached on that subject. A brief reference to the facts is necessary to a proper understanding of this question.

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Bluebook (online)
13 P. 760, 15 Or. 89, 1887 Ore. LEXIS 54, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fisk-v-henarie-or-1887.