Gill v. Goldfield Consolidated Mines Co.

176 P. 784, 43 Nev. 1
CourtNevada Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 15, 1919
DocketNo. 2326
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 176 P. 784 (Gill v. Goldfield Consolidated Mines Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Nevada Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gill v. Goldfield Consolidated Mines Co., 176 P. 784, 43 Nev. 1 (Neb. 1919).

Opinions

By the Court,

Sanders, J.:

The plaintiff brought this action to recover from the defendant corporation the sum of $10,000 as damages [4]*4for the wrongful death by drowning of his child, 9 years of age, in a reservoir erected and maintained by the defendant upon its premises for the purposes of fire protection to the defendant’s milling plant or reduction works situated near by. The plaintiff sought to recover the sum stated, upon the theory that the reservoir was in law and in fact an “attractive nuisance,” and that at the time of the drowning of the child the reservoir was not safeguarded as required by the statute entitled “An act to secure persons and animals from danger arising from mining and other excavations.” Rev. Laws, 3233. At the trial the jury returned a verdict in favor of the defendant, and judgment was entered accordingly. This appeal is taken from the judgment alone.

Upon calling the case for argument in this court, the respondent, upon notice previously given, moved the court to dismiss the appeal, upon the ground that no motion for a new trial was ever made in the lower court before the appeal was taken, and that no memorandum of errors was filed and served as contemplated by section 5322, Revised Laws.

1-5. Section 386 of our civil practice act (,Rev. Laws, 5328) upon which the motion is based, provides:

“Where the appeal is based upon the ground that the evidence is insufficient to justify the verdict or decision of the court, or to support the findings, or upon alleged errors in ruling upon the evidence, or upon instructions claimed to be erroneous, a motion for a new trial must be made and determined before the appeal is taken. In all other cases the party aggrieved may appeal with or without first moving for a new trial; but by appealing without first moving for a new trial, the right to move for a new trial is waived.”

It is admitted that no motion for a new trial was made in the court as contemplated by this section, and it is conceded that the appeal in' this case is based upon alleged errors in ruling upon the evidence, the giving of [5]*5instructions claimed to be erroneous, and the refusal to give instructions claimed to be correct. The question raised by the motion to dismiss, therefore, is: Is it essential to the jurisdiction of this court on an appeal from a judgment that it should affirmatively appear from the record that a motion for a new trial was made and determined before the appeal was taken? Manifestly the legislature by the adoption of section 386 clearly evinced an intention that an appeal which is based upon certain errors raising questions dependent upon the evidence for determination should not be considered in the appellate court unless the court below had been afforded an opportunity to correct such errors by motion for a new trial. The section as adopted had no place in the old procedure. What is made by it a statutory rule was once characterized by this court as being entirely unnecessary. Cooper v. Pac. Mutual Life Ins. Co., 7 Nev. 116, 8 Am. Rep. 705. In that case the court said:

“It is the everyday practice under the new system, as well as the old, to take cases to the appellate courts upon bill of exceptions, upon which all rulings raising legal questions may be reviewed. Will it be argued, for example, that a question growing out of the instructions or charge to the jury cannot be reviewed, except when a motion for a new trial is made? Certainly not. * * * ”

It may be presumed that the legislature adopted section 386 with full knowledge of the state of the practice then existing. By a subsequent contemporaneous section of the practice act (section 401; Rev. Laws, 5343) it is provided, inter alia, that at the time a decision, order, or ruling is made, and during the progress of the cause, before or after judgment, a party may take his bill of exceptions to the decision, order, admission, or exclusion of testimony or evidence, or other ruling of the court or judge on points of law, and any party aggrieved may appeal from the judgment without further statement or motion. By. section 386, where the appeal is [6]*6based upon the same errors as those embraced in section 401, the party aggrieved must first move for a new trial before taking his appeal. By section 401 the same errors may be reviewed on appeal from the judgment without such motion. We are not here called upon to reconcile the obvious inconsistency of these provisions, except as incident to the solution of the main question presented in opposition to the motion to dismiss the appeal, namely, that section 386, upon which the motion to dismiss is based, was repealed by the approval of a subsequent act entitled :

“An act supplemental to and to amend an act entitled ‘An act to regulate proceedings in civil cases in this state and to repeal all acts in relation thereto,’ approved March 17, 1911.” Stats. 1915, p. 164.

Section 2 of the act provides:

“Any party to an action or special proceeding from the time said action or proceeding is called for trial, and until including final judgment has been entered therein, may object and except to any ruling, decision, or order of the court or judge made therein, and, within twenty (20) days after such objection and exception, serve and file a bill of exceptions to such ruling, decision,' or action of the court, which bill of exceptions shall be settled and allowed by the judge or court, or by stipulation of the parties, as in the preceding section provided, and when so settled and allowed shall be and become a part of the record of said action or proceeding.”

Section 7 of the act provides:

“Bills of exception provided for by section 2 of this act may be prepared, served, and filed within twenty (20)'days after a motion for a new trial has been determined by the court, and all errors relied upon which may have occurred at the trial, or which may be alleged against the findings, or exceptions to the findings as made, and all errors based upon any ground for a new trial, may be included therein, and all such errors may be reviewed by the supreme court on appeal from the [7]*7judgment or order denying the motion for a new trial.”

Section 15 of the act provides:

“Sections 389, 390, 391, 392, 393, 394, 395, 396, and 397 of the above-entitled act, and all provisions of law in conflict herewith, are hereby repealed; but nothing contained herein shall affect or invalidate any proceedings already had in any action or special proceeding now pending, but said action or proceeding may be finally heard and determined upon the record made under the existing law.”

It will be observed that neither section 386 nor section 401 of the practice act are expressly repealed by the act of 1915. Whether a statute was repealed by a later one is a judicial, not a legislative, question. It is therefore a question of judicial construction whether section 386 is in conflict with the statute of 1915, and whether section .401 was repealed by said act. Repeal or no repeal is a question of legislative intention; and there are acknowledged rules for ascertaining that intention. From the framework of the statute of 1915 it is apparent that the legislature designed it to be and to operate as a complete revision of the practice then in vogue respecting statements on appeal, and to substitute therefor, in toto, a system of bills of exception.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
176 P. 784, 43 Nev. 1, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gill-v-goldfield-consolidated-mines-co-nev-1919.