Hickox v. Eastman

114 N.W. 706, 21 S.D. 591, 1908 S.D. LEXIS 10
CourtSouth Dakota Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 15, 1908
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 114 N.W. 706 (Hickox v. Eastman) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering South Dakota Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hickox v. Eastman, 114 N.W. 706, 21 S.D. 591, 1908 S.D. LEXIS 10 (S.D. 1908).

Opinion

CORSON, J.

This action was instituted by the plaintiff as trustee of the property of the Interstate Townsite 'Company and the South Dakota and Wyoming Townsite Company to vacate and cancel certain attachment proceedings in a case in the circuit court of Fall River county instituted by one George A. Fletcher against Francis C. Grable, resulting in a sale of certain property claimed by the townsite companies, as the property of Francis C. Grable and -execution of a deed therefor to the defendant Fletcher. Findings and judgment being in favor of the plaintiff, the defendants have appealed.

A motion was made in this court to dismiss the appeal in this .action, but in the view we take-of the case it will not be necessary to consider or discuss this motion on this appeal. It appears from the record in this case that in February, 1898, one George A. Fletcher held a note of one Francis Grable for a sum [593]*593exceeding $i 0,000, including interest, and that he instituted an action in the circuit court of Fall River county to< recover a judgment thereon, and in such action a warrant of attachment was issued and levied on the property involved in this action; that no answer or demurrer having been served or filed in said action judgment was entered on the 31st day of March, 1898, against said Grable and in said judgment the court ordered and directed that the property so levied upon under the war’ant of attachment he sold to satisfy said judgment; that the property was advertised for sale under a special execution issued upon said judgment, and on September 10, 1898, the same was sold to the defendant Fletcher by the sheriff of Fall .River county for the sum of $7,500; and that this sale was confirmed by the circuit court, and the usual certificate of sale was issued, and the usual deed executed.

It further appears: That on April 12, 1898, a petition was filed on part of the present plaintiff, Hickox, for leave to file and serve a complaint in intervention, and that upon this petition the court made the following order: “The attached complaint in intervention having been this day presented to me in open court, and leave asked to file the same by F. M. Vroman and S. E. Wilson, attorneys for the intervener named therein, it appearing that good cause exists therefor, it is ordered that leave be and i's hereby granted to file the same, and the said J. R. Hickox, trustee, be permitted to intervene in said case.” That on April 14, 1898, a copy of the complaint in intervention and of the said order was personally served upon G. M. Cleveland, as attorney for said Fletcher in the attachment case, but the judgment by default in the Fletcher case was not vacated or set aside. No further proceedings on said complaint of intervention seems to have been taken until September 3, 1898, when the said circuit court made the following order: “This cause coming on to be heard this 3rd day of September, 1898, at the city of Hot Springs, S. D., upon the petition and application of J. R. Hickox, trustee, for an order to stay an order of 'sale hereto issued in the above-entitled matter, and upon an order for plaintiff to show [594]*594cause why the said petition and application should not be granted, and the execution and order of sale in this case should not be stayed until the final determination of this cause, the plaintiff having appeared by his attorneys, and rested the said petition and application upon the grounds and for the reas'on that the order heretofore made allowing the petitioner, J. R. Hickox, trustee, the right to intervene, was improperly made, for the reason that judgment had been entered by default in the attachment proceedings herein prior to the order allowing the said petitioner to intervene, it is ordered that the judgment entered by default herein on the 31st day of March, 1898, be and the same is hereby opened up in so far as it adjudicates the light of the parties to> the property in dispute herein for the purpose of. allowing the petitioner, J. R. Hickox, trustee, to come in and have his rights to the said property adjudicated and determined, and the said J. R. Hickox, trustee, be and is hereby permitted and allowed to proceed as intervener, and all proceedings herein heretofore had by him as intervener- to be and remain the same as though this order opening up the said default judgment had been made and entered prior to the order made herein on the 13th day of April, 1898, allowing the said J. R. Hickox, trustee, the right to intervene herein. The petitioner is permitted and allowed tO' amend his petition to conform to this order. It is further ordered that the execution and order of sale heretofore made herein be and the same is hereby stayed as to that portion of the property described in said complaint of intervention as follows (here follows description of the land in controversy) until the trial and determination of said complaint of intervention, and until the further orders of the court; that a copy of this order be served upon said plaintiff or his attorney of record and the sheriff of Fall River county. And it is further ordered that the -said J. R. Hickox, trustee, or his attorney, pay to the plaintiff’s attorney herein the sum of $75 as attorney’s fees, and also pay all costs accrued under the said execution since the date of said judgment, including clerk’s, sheriff’s and printer’s charg-es, and upon the failure of the said Hick-ox, trustee, or his attorney, to pay the said sums of money, this order to be null and void, and the said plaintiff be permitted and [595]*595allowed to proceed with the sale of said premises.” The conditions prescribed by said order to give it effect were not complied with, and no complaint in intervention was filed, and no proceedings whatever were had or anything done in said action of Fletcher against Grable in pursuance of said order. That thereafter on the ioth day of September, 1898, this action was commenced by the said plaintiff, Hiclcox, and in his complaint he sets out substantially the same facts constituting a cause of action as set out in the complaint in intervention.

It is contended by the defendants and appellants that said Hiclcox having obtained leave to file a complaint in intervention, he it now estopped from maintaining the present action, for the reason that he could have litigated in that action all of the issues sought to be litigated in the present action. This contention, in our opinion, is untenable, for the reason that the court finds that no complaint in intervention was in fact filed under the order of September 3 d,- and under'the terms of that order he could not have properly filed such complaint until he had complied with the terms of the order as to the payment of the $75 and costs. It will be observed that the court held, and we think properly, that the petition for leave to intervene presented, and the order made on April 13th, subsequent to the entry of judgment in the Fletcher cas“, was ineffectual for any purpose. Section 96 of the Revised Code of Civil Procedure provides that: “Any person may, before the trial, intervene in an action or proceeding, who has an interest in the matter in litigation in the success of either party, or an interest against both.” It will be observed that the judgment had been rendered in the attachment action prior to the filing of the petition for leave to intervene, and that the court without vacating or setting aside the judgment rendered made the order of April 13th. The court in its order of September 3d evidently treated the order of April 13th as null and void, and we are of the opinion that the court was fully justified in so treating it.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
114 N.W. 706, 21 S.D. 591, 1908 S.D. LEXIS 10, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hickox-v-eastman-sd-1908.