Graves v. State ex rel. Cole

36 N.E. 275, 136 Ind. 406, 1894 Ind. LEXIS 161
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 31, 1894
DocketNo. 16,527
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 36 N.E. 275 (Graves v. State ex rel. Cole) 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
Graves v. State ex rel. Cole, 36 N.E. 275, 136 Ind. 406, 1894 Ind. LEXIS 161 (Ind. 1894).

Opinion

Dailey, J.

This was an action brought in the court below, by the appellant, John C. Graves, against his co-appellants and the appellee, to review a judgment rendered by the Crawford Circuit Court, on the 1st day of February, 1890, in favor of the State of Indiana, ex rel. Leslie C. Trotter, the auditor of Harrison county, against the appellants, for the sum of $2,200, and costs, in an action instituted against the said John C. Graves and his co-appellants as his sureties on his official bond as treasurer of Harrison county for his first term of office.

The complaint for review was filed by the appellant, John C. Graves, for alleged errors of law appearing in the proceedings and judgment sought to be reviewed, [408]*408making the other judgment defendants in the original cause, co-defendants with the appellee in this action.

Appellee appeared by counsel, and its co-defendants also entered their appearance. And, thereupon, the appellee, the State of Indiana, ex rel. Charles W. Cole, auditor of Harrison county, severing in its defense, filed on its own behalf a motion to strike out of the complaint the errors numbered 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 814 and 9, assigned therein, which motion was sustained by the court, to which ruling of the court the appellants excepted, and the motion, the decision of the court, and exceptions were made part of the record by the order of the court. Appellee then demurred to the complaint, which demurrer was sustained by the court, and the questions arising upon this ruling were saved by proper exceptions, and the plaintiff now declining to amend or plead further, judgment was rendered against him on his prayer for review, and in favor of appellee for his costs.

The plaintiff, in the court below, appeals to this court from the decision rendered on the complaint for review, and the co-defendants of the appellee, being defendants in the judgment sought to be reviewed, join in the appeal, assigning as errors:

1st. The ruling of the court below in sustaining the appellee’s motion to strike out errors numbered 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 814 and 9, alleged in the complaint.

2d. In striking out the errors numbered 5, 6 and 9, alleged in the complaint, and,

3d. In sustaining appellee’s demurrer to the appellant John C. Graves’ complaint for review.

First, as to the ruling of the court in sustaining appellee’s motion to strike out parts of the complaint,

As above stated, the complaint in this action is based upon alleged errors of law apparent in the proceedings [409]*409and judgment sought to be reviewed, and appellee’s motion was to strike out of the complaint the errors numbered 4 to 9, inclusive, and each of them severally.

Three reasons were assigned as grounds for the motion:

1st. That each of the errors so numbered was irrelevant, immaterial and incompetent.

2d. That neither of the errors complained of was properly in the record.

3d. That no motion for a new trial was filed in the action sought to be reviewed, assigning the alleged errors, or either of them, as reasons therefor.

The ruling of the court in sustaining appellee’s motion to strike out parts of appellants’ complaint is the subject of the first objection discussed by the learned counsel for the appellants in their able brief, and presents the leading question for the consideration of this court. This motion to strike out parts of appellants’ complaint was confined to the assignments of error therein contained numbered 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 814 and 9.

Appellants’ counsel concede that there was no available error in the action of the court in sustaining the motion to strike out, as to errors assigned numbered 4,' 7, 8 and 814, but insist that the court erred in sustaining appellee’s motion to strike out assignments 5, 6 and 9.

The question presented to the lower court, and the one that probably controlled its action in this case was this: Were the appellants in a situation to complain of these rulings of the court, they not having filed any motion for a new trial in said cause, in which these several rulings of the court were assigned as reasons for a new trial? In our opinion, there was but one question presented for the consideration of the lower court, and there is but one appearing in this court by the complaint to review and the record accompanying it, viz; “The sufficiency of [410]*410the complaint as originally filed, raised by assignments of error, in complaint to review numbered 1, 2 and 3.”

Section 615, R. S. 1881, provides that “any person who is a party to any judgment, or the heirs, devisees, or personal representatives of a deceased party, may file in the court where such judgment is rendered a complaint for a review of the proceedings and judgment.”

There are but two causes for review of a judgment provided for by statute, and they are contained in section 616, R. S. 1881.

This proceeding is under the first cause specified in said section, “error of law appearing.in the proceedings and judgment.”

The record discloses that there was no motion for a new trial filed in the original cause, and, therefore, the ruling upon the motion for a change of venue, and the questions in relation to the challenge of jurors was not apparent upon the face of the record, nor properly apart of it, and the motion to strike out errors numbered 5, 6 and 9 was properly sustained, for the reason that there was no record to sustain these assignments of errors.

The special bills of exceptions in the record of this cause, relating to these assignments numbered 5 and 6, are improperly there and not available for the same reason.

A proceeding to review a judgment is in the nature of an appeal, and the complaint, where the proceeding is for error of law apparent on the face of the record, as in the case at bar, must set out so much of the record in the original cause as would be necessary to present the same question on appeal to this court. 1 Works’ Prac., p. 691, sections 1049, 1050, 1051, and authorities there cited.

A party is required to file a motion for a new trial, before he can present a question on appeal to the Supreme [411]*411Court, and the same rule applies in like manner before error can be assigned in a complaint to review a judgment. Generally speaking, the trial of a cause is not ended until a motion for a new trial is disposed of or waived. 1 Works’ Prac., p. 602, section 927, and authorities cited.

Stating the case differently, a party must ask relief from the judgment and rulings of the court complained of in the original action and during the trial, before he is entitled to appeal or review, in all rulings constituting a proper reason for a new trial. If the question is one tó be saved by a special bill of exceptions, it must be filed in time and then made the ground of one of the reasons for a new trial, and both the exception and motion must be filed with the complaint to review, before an assignment of error would be effective. Error such as is assigned in numbers 5 and 6 of the complaint to review, to be available on appeal, must have been first brought before the court by special bill of exceptions, and then assigned as a reason for a new trial. 1 Works’ Prac., sections 882, 932; Boyd, by Next Friend, v. Fitch, 71 Ind. 306; Richardson v. Howk, 45 Ind. 451; Rice v. Turner, 72 Ind. 559;

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
36 N.E. 275, 136 Ind. 406, 1894 Ind. LEXIS 161, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/graves-v-state-ex-rel-cole-ind-1894.