Gazzo v. Bisso Ferry Co.

174 So. 132, 1937 La. App. LEXIS 197
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMay 3, 1937
DocketNo. 16681.
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 174 So. 132 (Gazzo v. Bisso Ferry Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gazzo v. Bisso Ferry Co., 174 So. 132, 1937 La. App. LEXIS 197 (La. Ct. App. 1937).

Opinion

JANVIER, Judge.

This matter comes before us on motion to dismiss a devolutive appeal on the ground that the transcript of appeal was filed too late. The judgment appealed from was signed on November 9, 1936. The motion for appeal was filed on March 1, 1937, and, in the order granting the appeal, the return day was fixed as March 25, 1937. The record — no extension of time having been obtained — was filed in this court on April 9, 1937, long after the expiration of the time allowed by law.

Appellant objects to the dismissal on two grounds.

She maintains that the failure to file the transcript in time resulted from no fault on her part, or on the part of her attorney, but was due to the fact that “it has been the custom for the transcript cleric, in preparing the transcript, to notify the attorney when same was ready for filing” and that “counsel for appellant received no notice and the laches ensuing and resulting in said transcript having been lodged in this honorable court at an overdue date was from no fault or delay of appellant.”

She objects to the dismissal on the additional ground that since there yet remains some portion of the year following the day on which the judgment was signed, she might, if this appeal is dismissed, immediately again apply for a devolutive appeal, and that, therefore, “it would be an idle formality to dismiss the appeal and have appellant go through the same formalities in lodging a new appeal devolu-tively from the court below.”

Where an appeal is taken to this court or to the Supreme Court from a judgment of a district court, it is the duty of the appellant and not of the clerk, nor of any of his deputies, to see to it that the record of appeal is lodged in the appellate court within the time provided by law:

“The appellant must return the said petition of appeal and the transcript of the proceedings into the court of appeal.” Code Prac. art. 587. See, also, Code Prac. arts. 883, 884.

In Cann v. Ruston State Bank, 155 La. 283, 99 So. 221, the Supreme Court said, “the law is. * * * clear that it is the *133 duty of the appellant to file the transcript in this court.”

In Kirkland v. Edenborn, 140 La. 669, 73 So. 719, 720, the court repeated almost the identical language.

The case of Vinyard v. Stassi, 152 So. 161, in which the Court of Appeal for the First Circuit held that the “clerk of district court of parish from which appeal is taken, and not appellant, has duty to transmit record to clerk of Court of Appeal” (syllabus), is not in conflict because there is a special statute which requires that in appeals to the Court of Appeal for the First Circuit the record shall be transmitted by the clerk of the district court. In that case the court said:

“Act No. 89 of 1914 is a special statute and applies to the First Circuit. This act makes it the duty of clerks of the district courts throughout the circuit to transmit the records of cases, appealed to the Court of Appeal, to the clerk of the district court at Baton Rouge.”

Appellant gives, as a reason for failing to file the transcript, the reliance of her counsel upon a custom which she alleges had been established by the transcript clerk of the district court. If such a custom had been established, still the failure, of the transcript clerk to comply with his customary course of conduct is chargeable to the appellant herself, for, as the Supreme Court said in Cann v. Ruston State Bank, supra:

“Since it is the duty of the appellant to file the transcript here, it follows that if he intrusts the transmission of it to another for filing, the one to whom it is intrusted becomes the agent of the appellant for the purpose of transmitting it, and if the agent selected is negligent in discharging the duty assumed, the negligence is imputable to the appellant.”

In fact, in that case the court held that reliance upon even a promise of the clerk to actually attend to the filing of the record in the appellate court is not sufficient to relieve the appellant of the absolute duty of seeing that it is so filed. The court said:

“Thus, it has been held, where the clerk of the trial court promised to attend to the filing of the record in this court, that the clerk for that purpose became the agent of the appellant, and that the latter was chargeable with the fault of the clerk in failing seasonably to transmit the record for filing. Brother Syndic v. Bank of Louisiana, 10 La.Ann. 147; McDowell and Peck v. Read, 5 La.Ann. 42.”

The same question was presented in, Kirkland v. Edenborn, supra, in which the court said:

“If the transcript be not filed, the ap-. peal will be dismissed, although the clerk ■ of the court a qua had promised to file it in the Supreme Court.
“In such case the clerk is the agent of the appellant. See A. Brother, Syndic, v. Bank of Louisiana, 10 La.Ann. 147, citing McDowell v. Read, 5 La.Ann. 42.”

It thus follows that the delay in filing the transcript was chargeable to appellant, who was not prevented “by any event not under his control” (Code Prac. art. 883), and from this it also follows that the failure to lodge the transcript within the time permitted by law must be construed as an abandonment of the appeal.

“The Code of Practice is positive that if the appellant does not file the transcript seasonably, the appeal shall be considered as abandoned, and the appellant shall not be afterwards allowed to renew it. Code Prac. art. 594.” Ducournau et al. v. Levistones, 4 La.Ann. 30.

“The rule is settled beyond controversy that, where the appellant perfects his appeal, and fails to file the transcript .on or before the return day, or within the three days of grace following the return day, he is conclusively presumed to have abandoned the appeal; and this conclusive presumption can only be avoided by timely (i. e., previous) application to the appellate court for an extension of the return’day. And in such cases the motion to dismiss can be made at any time after the filing of the transcript. Dupierris v. Sparicia, 164 La. 290, 113 So. 851; Whitney-Central Trust & Savings Bank v. Greenwood Planting & Mfg. Co., 146 La. 572, 83 So. 834.” Jacobs et al. v. Weaver & Rivers, 167 La. 59, 118 So. 692.

But appellant contends that it would serve no useful purpose to dismiss this appeal, • since, so she avers, she may immediately apply for another devolutive appeal. If so, and for reasons which we shall hereinafter set forth, we have more than a passing doubt as to her right to-another appeal. The fact that .she may apply for one does not authorize us to maintain this one, which, under the well-settled doctrine, she must be considered as having abandoned.

*134 In Levy v. Levy et al., 52 La.Ann. 1920, 28 So. 246, the Supreme Court refused to yield to a similar argument. There the unsuccessful litigant in the district court had secured an order for a “suspensive or a devolutive appeal” and, having filed a bond for the suspensive appeal, had not lodged the transcript in the circuit court until it was too late to do so.

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Bluebook (online)
174 So. 132, 1937 La. App. LEXIS 197, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gazzo-v-bisso-ferry-co-lactapp-1937.