Fowler v. Newsom

90 N.E. 9, 174 Ind. 104, 1909 Ind. LEXIS 177
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 10, 1909
DocketNo. 21,373
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 90 N.E. 9 (Fowler v. Newsom) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fowler v. Newsom, 90 N.E. 9, 174 Ind. 104, 1909 Ind. LEXIS 177 (Ind. 1909).

Opinion

Monks, J.

This is an appeal from a judgment establishing a public highway.

It is first insisted by appellants that the court below erred in overruling their motion to dismiss the appeal from the board of commissioners to said court.

1. One of the grounds of said motion was that the court below had no jurisdiction over the subject-matter of the action, because the record of the proceedings of the board of commissioners, as set out in the transcript filed in said cause, did not show that said board approved, disapproved or otherwise acted upon the report of the first viewers, and that for this reason all the subsequent acts and proceedings of said board of commissioners were without jurisdiction and void, and said court below had no jurisdiction thereof on appeal.

It appears from the record that this proceeding was commenced by appellees before the board of commissioners at the April term, 1906, that viewers were appointed at said term to view said proposed highway, as required by the stat[107]*107ute; that said viewers made a report, ‘ ‘ giving a full description of the location of said highway,” in all respects as required by §7651 Burns 1908, Acts 1905 p. 52.1, §3, and finding that said proposed highway would be of public utility; that this report was filed with the county auditor on April 16, 1906; that afterwards, at the May term, 1906, of said board, appellants Fowler and Collins each filed a remonstrance against the proposed highway, “as not being of public utility,” and for damages; that reviewers were appointed by the board at said term, as required by §§7653, 7657 Burns 1908, Acts 1905 p. 521, §§5, 9, in eases where remonstrances for damages and inutility are filed; that at the June term, 1906, of said board, said reviewers reported that said proposed highway would not be of public utility; that said board thereupon rendered judgment against the petitioners, the appellees in this appeal, denying said petition. From this judgment of the board of commissioners the petitioners appealed to the court below, where appellants filed said motion to dismiss said appeal, on the grounds heretofore mentioned.

2. 3. [108]*1084. [107]*107The auditor filed with his transcript in the court below all the papers in said cause, including the report of said first viewers. Said first viewers’ report fully complied with the requirements of the statute and was sufficient. Lake Erie, etc., R. Co. v. Shelley (1904), 163 Ind. 36, 38, 40. It would have been proper practice to show in the proceedings of the board at said May term, 1906, that said report was made by said first viewers, but the failure to do so did not deprive the board of jurisdiction of said cause, or make its subsequent acts in said cause void. The filing of remonstrances by appellants for damages and inutility made it the duty of the board to appoint reviewers, as provided in §§7653, 7657, supra, without making an order establishing said highway on the report of said first viewers. From the record, which includes the re[108]*108port of said first viewers, it will be presumed that said board received said report, for the reason that it was not authorized to appoint reviewers, as it did, until after said first viewers had reported in favor of the public utility of said proposed highway. §§7652, 7653, 7657 Burns 1908, Acts 1905 p. 521, §§4, 5, 9. Said first viewers’ report was a paper in said cause and a part of the record.

5. The other ground for the motion to dismiss the appeal was that “no appeal bond was ever tendered, filed or approved to appeal said cause from the board of commissioners, and that the report does not show that any appeal was taken or that any appeal bond was ever tendered, filed or approved.”

Acts 1905 p. 521, §123, §7793 Burns 1908, authorizes appeals from the board of commissioners to the circuit court within thirty days from the decision of the board in cases like this, by filing a bond with surety and penalty to be approved by the auditor of such county. There is nothing in the statute requiring that the record of the proceedings before the board of commissioners or the transcript filed by the auditor in the circuit court should show that an appeal was prayed or taken from the decision of said board to the circuit court, or that the appeal bond should be incorporated or mentioned in said record or transcript. §6023 Burns 1908, §5774 R. S. 1881. See Demaree v. Johnson (1898), 150 Ind. 419, 421, 422.

6. Before the motion to dismiss the appeal was ruled upon by the court, appellees filed an affidavit showing that an appeal bond had been filed in said cause with, and approved by, the auditor of said county within the time prescribed by law providing for appeals in such cases, but that said bond was lost or destroyed, and also filed therewith a written request for permission to file a substituted appeal bond. The court granted said request, and appellees filed a substituted appeal bond, which was approved by [109]*109the court, and “to said ruling and decision of the court touching the filing of said bond appellants excepted.”

It is insisted by appellants that “before a substituted bond can be filed in the circuit court for one alleged to have been filed in the auditor’s office and approved by such auditor, proof of such filing and approval by the auditor and the name of the surety thereon must be made by the affidavit of the auditor, and if the name of the surety is not remembered by the auditor, the affidavit of the surety, to the effect that he signed the appeal bond, must be filed, or the affidavit of someone else, who knows the facts why such information is not furnished, must be filed.”

As there is no statute prescribing the kind or character of the evidence necessary to establish the filing and approving of an appeal bond in cases like this, nor the manner of proving such filing and approving, they may be established by affidavit, as was done in this case. Appellees were not required to prove said filing and approving by the affidavit of the county auditor or the surety on the bond. Appellants had the right to show by the affidavit of the county auditor that no such bond was ever approved by him, but the record does not show that appellants gave any evidence on this question.

7. There is no law requiring that said appeal bond, filed by leave of the court below, should be signed by all or a part of the same persons who signed the appeal bond approved by the auditor, and there is no presumption that it was so signed. This court has held that when an appeal bond is lost, on a proper affidavit a substituted or new appeal bond may be filed. Gumberts v. Adams Express Co. (1867), 28 Ind. 181. The court below by granting leave to appellees to file a now or substituted appeal bond, and approving it, found that an appeal bond had been filed and approved by the auditor in said case within the time required by §7793, supra. It follows, therefore, that the court did not [110]*110err in ovei’ruling appellants’ motion to dismiss said appeal.

8. Appellants have attempted, by affidavit filed in this court, to present the question of the sufficiency of said appeal bond filed by leave of the court below and approved by it, on the ground that it is signed by two of the appellees and not by a surety.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Barton v. State
163 N.E.2d 600 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1960)
Zieg v. R. L. Romy Investment Co.
27 N.E.2d 387 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1940)
Inter-Ocean Casualty Co. v. Wilkins
182 N.E. 252 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1932)
Stein v. Schuneman
273 P. 543 (Wyoming Supreme Court, 1929)
Piggly-Wiggly Stores, Inc. v. Lowenstein
147 N.E. 771 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1925)
Outlook Farmers' Elevator Co. v. American Surety Co.
223 P. 905 (Montana Supreme Court, 1924)
Charleston School Township v. Isgrigg
120 N.E. 724 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1918)
Hitt v. Carr
109 N.E. 456 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1915)
Bronnenberg v. Goins
108 N.E. 862 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1915)
Hayes v. Johnson
105 N.E. 164 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1914)
Kelley v. Scanlan
104 N.E. 516 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1914)
Southern Railway Co. v. Bretz
104 N.E. 19 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1914)
Guyer v. Union Trust Co.
104 N.E. 82 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1914)
McPherson v. State
99 N.E. 984 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1912)
Adams v. State
99 N.E. 483 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1912)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
90 N.E. 9, 174 Ind. 104, 1909 Ind. LEXIS 177, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fowler-v-newsom-ind-1909.