Galloway v. Craig

122 Ky. 447
CourtCourt of Appeals of Kentucky
DecidedJanuary 15, 1906
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 122 Ky. 447 (Galloway v. Craig) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Kentucky primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Galloway v. Craig, 122 Ky. 447 (Ky. Ct. App. 1906).

Opinion

OpihioN op the Court by

John D. Carroll, Commissioner

— Affirming.

In 1874 one Shultz sold to R. H. Simmons a tract of land in Ohio county and gave bond for title. Failing to pay the purchase money, suit was instituted against him, and in 1875 judgment rendered, ordering a sale of a sufficient quantity of the land to pay the purchase money. This judgment was not executed or satisfied when the owner, Simmons,' died in October, 1877, a'resident of Butler county, Ky., leaving surviving him his widow and four children, aged 12, 10, 5, and 1 years. A few months after his death, a child afterwards named R. L. Simmons was born. In December, 1877, administration ón his estate was [450]*450granted' in the Bntler county court. In November, 1877, the death of Simmons was suggested in the Shultz case, and it was continued for revivor. In April, 1877, a notice that Shultz w'ould move to- have the action revived on a day named in the May term was prepared by the attorney for Shultz. This notice did not mention the administrator or the posthumous child, nor was it executed on either of them; but on Mhy 2, 1878, was executed on the1 widow and four children “by delivering to each of them al copy of this notice, and an extra copy to the mother with whom they resided. ’ ’ On May 17th, A. L. Morton, who was then circuit clerk, Was appointed guardian ad litem for the four children and filed his answer. Afterwards 10 acres of land was sold to pay the debt, and in 1878 an order was made confirming the report of the sale. In March, 1878, Mrs. Hill, who-had a mortgage in this land, filed her action in the Ohio circuit court to have her lien enforced. Process appears to have been executed in this action on the widow and four older children, a guardian ad litem was appointed for the children and answered, and the Butler county administrator appeared in the ease and filed a special demurrer, which was overruled. In November, 1880, a judgment ordering a sale of the remainder of the land was entered, and under this judgment the remainder of the land was sold; and in' 1881 the report of the sale was confirmed. The record in these two_ actions has been lost, and the above somewhat imperfect data were obtained from order books and by a special commissioner appointed to supply as much as possible the lost record. Appellee, Wallace M„ Brown, by a series of conveyances, became the owner of! the 150 acres of land sold under these [451]*451decrees, and the appellants, wlio are children of R. H. Simmons, instituted this action in 1901 to recover from him this land. The chancellor dismissed the petition as to all except the posthumous child, R, L. Simmons, adjudging that he was entitled to one-fifth of the land as he was not a party to any proceedings under which it was sold.

Appellants contend that the sale under the Shultz judgment was void because the judgment was not revived against the administrator, wlm was not at any time a party to this action, because the revivor was made too soon and proper notice of it was not given to the infants, and because an attempt was made to revive the action, and not the judgment, and no guardian ad litem was regularly appointed for the infants. They contend that the judgment in the Hill case was void because the Ohio Circuit Court had no jurisdiction of the subject-matter of the action, and no guardian ad litem was appointed to represent the infants, and therefore they were not before the court when judgment was rendered. Counsel for the appellees concede that the proceedings in these cases were not entirely regular, but insist that they are not void, however erroneous, and cannot be attacked in this collateral proceeding.

We will first take up the objections urged against the validity of the judgment in the Shultz case. It is true that the judgment, and not the action, should have been revived; but the presumption must be indulged in, after the great length of time, that it was in fact the judgment, and not the action, that, was revived. Indeed, it does not seem material whether the notice of revivor or the order are designated as an attempt to revive the action, or the judgment, because a judgment in the action had been [452]*452rendered during the life of Simmons, and it was necessarily the judgment that was sought to be revived. No attempt whatever of any kind was made to revive the action. It would be extremely technical to -hold that merely because the notice and order show that it was the action and not the judgment that was sought to be, and Was, revived, that therefore all proceedings after the revivor were void. The administrator was not a necessary party to.the proceeding to revive this judgment. N> personal relief was sought, and upon the death of Simmnos the title to this land descended to his heirs. Burge’s Adm’r v. Brown, 5 Bush, 535, 96 Am. Dec. 369. The land alone was sought to be subjected and the heirs were the only necessary parties to this proceeding, although an action or judgment may be revived against both the personal "representatives and the heirs, and in some cases it may be necessary that the personal representative should, be made a party. The Code of 1854, controls the proceeding in the Shultz case, and that Code provides in section'437 that a judgment may be revived against the personal representative and heirs, either or both, by delivering a copy of the notice to the persons against whom the judgment is sought to be revived; and section 81 ■provides that where the defendant is an infant “under.the age of fourteen years, the service must be upon him and his father or guardian, or if neither of these can be found, then upon his mother, or any other white person having the care or control of the infant, or with whom he lives.” These infants were under the age of fourteen years, their father was dead, and it does not appear that they had a* guardian. Therefore it was proper to execute the notice of revivor upon the infants and their mother' [453]*453in the manner in which it was done in this ease. Rodgers v. Rodgers’ Adm’r, 31 S. W. 139, 17 Ky., Law Rep. 358; Cheatham v. Whitman, 86 Ky. 614 9 Ky. Law Rep., 761; 6 S. W., 595. That Code also provided that a judgment should not he revived against the heirs until twelve months after the death of the defendant. The judgment in this case was revived against the heirs before the expiration of twelve months after the death of Simmons, and in this respect the proceeding was irregular and premature; but this premature proceeding did not render the sale under the judgment void, hut only erroneous. It was merely a clerical misprision (Webber v. Webber, 1 Metc. 18; Morrison v. Beckham, 96 Ky. 72, 16 Ky. Law Rep. 294; 27 S. W. 868), as was the failure of the guardian ad litem to file an answer if there was such failure (Keller v. Wilson, 90 Ky. 350, 12 Ky. Law Rep. 471; 14 S. W. 332; Oliver v. Park, 101 Ky. 1, 19 Ky. Law Rep. 179; 39 S. W. 423). The sale •under the judgment not being void, the remedy of these appellants was by appeal, and they cannot successfully attack it in this collateral proceeding.

The judgment in the Hill case is. assailed chiefly on the ground that the Ohio Circuit Court had no jurisdiction of the action, because Simmons died in Butler county, Ky., and administration on his estate was granted in that county before the Hill action was instituted, and therefore it is insisted that the Butler Circuit Court alone had jurisdiction of the action, and that all the proceedings in the Ohio. Circuit Court were void. This action was instituted in 1878, and hence the present Code of P’raotice controls it.

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Bluebook (online)
122 Ky. 447, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/galloway-v-craig-kyctapp-1906.