Henrichsen v. Smith

42 P. 486, 29 Or. 475, 1896 Ore. LEXIS 70
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 18, 1896
StatusPublished
Cited by25 cases

This text of 42 P. 486 (Henrichsen v. Smith) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Henrichsen v. Smith, 42 P. 486, 29 Or. 475, 1896 Ore. LEXIS 70 (Or. 1896).

Opinion

Per Curiam.

1. From this statement it will be seen that the question sought to be determined in this proceeding is the validity of the order of Judge McGinn setting aside the judgment and granting a new trial, but we have no jurisdiction to determine that question. Under the statute this court does not acquire jurisdiction to hear and determine a cause unless the transcript is filed by the second day of the ensuing term after the appeal is perfected, or within such further time as may be allowed in the manner provided by law: Hill’s Code, § 541. The requirements of this section have not been complied with, and hence the court is without jurisdiction.

2. In case of an abandoned appeal, it has been the practice since Hadley v. Heatherly, 2 Or. 117, for respondent to bring into this court certain portions of the record, and have the judgment affirmed pro forma, and out of this practice has grown what is now Rule 14, but it has never been supposed that by such a proceeding it acquired jurisdiction to hear and determine .the cause or any question at issue therein. This practice simply provides a means by which respondent may have the fact that an appeal has been abandoned made a matter of record, but it cannot be used for the purpose of determining any controverted questions in the case. By the order of Judge McGinn, which, for the purpose of the case, must be assumed to be valid, the judgment from which the appeal was taken ceased to exist, and the defendant was not required to file [478]*478a transcript, and hence the rule in reference tc abandoned appeals does not apply. It follows that the motion must be denied, and it is so ordered.

Decided April 6, 1896. On Motion to Dismiss Appeal. This is a motion to dismiss an appeal. The record discloses that on March fourth, eighteen hundred and ninety-five, the defendants attempted to appeal from a judgment rendered against them in favor of plaintiff, by serving and filing a notice and undertaking therefor; that on May fourth, an order having been first made extending the time for submitting a bill .of exceptions, the term of court at which the said judgment was rendered was adjourned sine die; that on May twenty-second, and two days after the expiration of the time limited therefor, the defendants presented to the late Judge Hurley, who tried the action, their bill of exceptions, whereupon the court made an order permitting the plaintiff to suggest corrections or make objections thereto; that on July- twentieth, and after the usual order had been made continuing to the next term all actions, suits, and proceedings then pending in said court, the May term thereof expired by adjournment. On September tenth Judge Hurley died, without having signed the bill of exceptions, and was succeeded in the office by Judge Henry E. McGinn, who, having no knowledge of the history of the trial except such as was obtainable from an inspection of the official stenogrphic reporter’s certified report thereof, declined to sign the bill of exceptions, and, upon motion of the defendants, set aside the judgment and granted a new trial, from which last order the plaintiff appeals.

[478]*478Motion to Affirm Denied.

Dismissed. For the motion there was an oral argument by Mr. T. Harris Bartlett. Contra there was an oral argument by Mr. Roácoe It. Qiltner.

3. The defendants’ counsel, in support of the order, contends that it is not a final judgment, and therefore not appealable; while the plaintiff’s counsel insists that, the term of court at which the judgment was rendered having expired, the order permitting the defendants to thereafter submit a bill of exceptions was not such a proceeding as would authorize .the court at a subsequent term to vacate the judgment, and, having done so, its order is a void judgment, to correct which an appeal will lie. The question presented for consideration involves the power of the court to make the order complained of, for it must be concluded that if the court at the time it was made had the authority to vacate the judgment and grant a new trial, its order to that effect did not terminate the action, and is not appealable: [Kearney v. Snodgrass, 12 Or. 311 (7 Pac. 309); McBride v. Northern Pacific Railroad Company 19 Or. 64 (23 Pac. 814); Beekman v. Hamlin, 23 Or. 313 (10 L. R. A. 454, 31 Pac. 707);] [480]*480but, if the court had lost jurisdiction of the judgment, it was without power to set it aside, and its order in that respect is a void judgment, and therefore reviewable on appeal: Trullenger v. Todd, 5 Or. 36; Hume v. Bowie, 148 U. S. 245 (13 Sup. Ct. 582); Deering v. Quivey, 26 Or. 556 (38 Pac. 710). In Bronson v. Schulten, 104 U. S. 410, Mr. Justice Miller, in discussing the power of a court at a subsequent term to vacate its judgments, says “That after the term has ended all final judgments and decrees of the court pass beyond its control, unless steps be taken during that term, by motion or otherwise, to set aside, modify, or correct them.” The doctrine announced in that case was approved in Deering v. Quivey, 26 Or. 556, (38 Pac. 710,) and has become the rule of practice in this state; and the only inquiry remaining is whether the court, by the order permitting the defendants at a subsequent term of the court to present their bill of exceptions, retained jurisdiction over the judgment. The service of the notice of appeal, and filing the same with an undertaking therefor, manifest an intention to take an appeal, and the order extending the time beyond the term must be considered as a step taken to modify or correct judgment, and, having- been made before the adjournment of the term, kept the cause in the “breast of the court,” and jurisdiction of the judgment was thereby retained.

4. Nor could the failure of the defendants to submit their bill of exceptions within the time limited defeat the right to vacate the judgment, or [481]*481exhaust the power of the judge thereafter to sign the bill of exceptions: Che Gong v. Stearns, 16 Or. 219 (17 Pac. 871). Indeed, counsel for the plaintiff admits in the argument that by mandamus the judge could have been compelled to settle and sign it.

5. There is quite a conflict of judicial authority as to the proper person to sign a bill of exceptions under the conditions hereinbefore stated: 3 Ency. of Pleading and Practice, 455. In England it is held that if a party, without his fault, lost the benefit of his bill of exceptions by reason of the death of the trial judge, the judgment should be set aside and a. new trial ordered: Newton v. Boodle, 54 Eng. Com. Law Rep. 794. So, too, in Benett v. Steamboat Company, 81 Eng. Com. Law Rep. 28, it was held that if a party, by reason of the ill .health of the trial judge, was unable to obtain his signature to a bill of exceptions, a new trial must be granted.

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

Related

Fry v. Ashley
363 P.2d 555 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1961)
Payn v. Richards
231 P.2d 420 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1951)
Bogh v. Bogh
202 P.2d 503 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1949)
Case v. Fox
7 P.2d 267 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1932)
Weinstein v. Wheeler
271 P. 733 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1928)
Darling-Singer Lumber Co. v. Oriental Navigation Co.
272 P. 275 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1928)
Kruckman v. Smith
270 P. 474 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1928)
Walker v. Fireman's Fund Insurance
257 P. 701 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1927)
Rosumny v. Marks
246 P. 723 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1926)
Finch v. Pacific Reduction & Chemical Mfg. Co.
234 P. 296 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1925)
People Ex Rel. King v. District Court
229 P. 1113 (Supreme Court of Colorado, 1924)
State v. Ramirez
203 P. 279 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1921)
Carmichael v. Carmichael
199 P. 385 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1921)
State v. Ricks
180 P. 257 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1919)
Anderson v. Anderson
175 P. 287 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1918)
Thomsen v. Giebisch
173 P. 888 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1918)
Dennis v. State
137 Tenn. 543 (Tennessee Supreme Court, 1917)
Missouri Slope Land & Investment Co. v. Hastead
147 N.W. 643 (North Dakota Supreme Court, 1914)
First Christian Church v. Robb
138 P. 856 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1914)
Zelig v. Blue Point Oyster, Co.
113 P. 852 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1911)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
42 P. 486, 29 Or. 475, 1896 Ore. LEXIS 70, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/henrichsen-v-smith-or-1896.