Hines v. Driver

100 Ind. 315, 1885 Ind. LEXIS 202
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 12, 1885
DocketNo. 10,644
StatusPublished
Cited by79 cases

This text of 100 Ind. 315 (Hines v. Driver) 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
Hines v. Driver, 100 Ind. 315, 1885 Ind. LEXIS 202 (Ind. 1885).

Opinion

Elliott, J.

The appellee’s complaint seeks a new trial on the ground of newly discovered evidence. Its sufficiency was questioned by a demurrer in the court below, and the appellants insist that their demurrer ought to have been sustained.

The case has already received consideration upon a motion made by the appellee to dismiss the appeal, and it was then held, after a very careful and full investigation, that a proceeding seeking a new trial, commenced after the expiration of the term, Avas an independent one. Hines v. Driver, 89 Ind. 339. We have no doubt of the correctness of the conclusion then announced. As the proceeding is a now and independent action, it requires a complaint; it is, indeed, expressly required by the statute, and has been so held by our own and other courts. In Glidewell v. Daggy, 21 Ind. 95, it was said, in speaking of an application for a neAV trial made after the close of the term: “ It is by complaint, and the complaint must show, on its face, a case for a new trial, so that, should it be demurred to, and thereby be admitted, the court Avould act finally upon it. It must contain, in allegation, Avhat must be shoAvn in proof.” The court, in Sanders v. Loy, 45 Ind. 229, declared that the proceeding Avas an independent one, and held that an issue must be formed on the complaint, and tried by the court, and the judgment Avas reversed because the court erred in overruling the demurrer. In Hiatt v. Ballinger, 59 Ind. 303, it Avas held that the proceeding was an independent one, and that the demurrer to the complaint was properly sustained. But it is unnecessary to make further extracts from the adjudged cases in this court, for they uniformly hold that the proceeding is an independent one, that it is by complaint, and that the sufficiency of the complaint may be tried by demurrer. Allen v. Gillum, 16 Ind. 234; Huntington v. Drake, 24 Ind. 347; Rickart v. Davis, 42 Ind. 164; Bartholomew v. Loy, 44 Ind. 393; Shigley v. Snyder, 45 Ind. 543; Roush v. Layton, 51 Ind. 106; Cox v. Harvey, 53 Ind. 174; Trustees, etc., v. Reynolds, 61 Ind. 104; Burton v. Harris, 76 Ind. 429; Hitch v. Oatis, 79 Ind. 96. [317]*317It is so held elsewhere. Cohol v. Allen, 37 Iowa, 449. As a complaint is required, it must be such as will withstand a demurrer, and in order that it may be sufficient to do this, it must properly plead such facts as show the applicant entitled to a new trial. It is a familiar rule, of pleading, that a demurrer admits only such facts as are sufficiently pleaded, and the question which in this instance arises under the rule is, whether the affidavits of witnesses and the bil'1 of exceptions containing the evidence given on the former trial and filed with the complaint form part of it in such-a. manner as to be deemed sufficiently pleaded. The general rule undoubtedly is that a paper not the foundation of an action can not be made, part of a pleading by filing it as an .exhibit. This rule is a statutory one, and is firmly supported .by the decided cases. Cassaday v. American Ins. Co.; 72 Ind. 95, see auth. p. 99; Clodfelter v. Hulett, 72 Ind. 137; Stahl v. Hammontree, 72 Ind. 103; Briscoe v. Johnson, 73 Ind. 573; Carter v. Branson, 79 Ind. 14. Where, however, the instrument is properly made an exhibit, and thus incorporated into the complaint, it will not only aid the averments of the pleading, but will often control them. Bayless v. Glenn, 72 Ind. 5; Parker v. Teas, 79 Ind. 235, see auth. p. 238. But, while the general rule is that stated, there are many exceptions to it. A complaint for review not only may but.must set out a transcript of the proceedings, and this is properly done by way of making it an exhibit. So, when a construction of a will is asked, the will may be set oxit as an exhibit. So, where the correction of a written instrument is asked, it is properly made an exhibit. We think the present case also forms at least a partial exception to the general rule. It is settled by the decisions to which we have referred, that the complaint for a new trial must set forth the evidence given on the former trial, and also the affidavits of the witnesses from whom the newly discovered evide'nce is expected to be elicited in case .of a new trial. The case is therefore very plainly distinguishable from one in which the evidence is not re[318]*318quired to be set out. Tbe difference between the cases governed by the general rule becomes more striking, when it is brought to mind that ordinarily it is improper to plead evidence ; while, in such a case as this, it is not only proper, but indispensably necessary. As the evidence must be pleaded, it is only necessary to plead the instruments which contain it. Any other rule than this would uselessly encumber the record, for it would require the instruments to be made exhibits and the evidence itself to be rehearsed in the body of the complaint, and, surely, no good purpose would be accomplished by such a practice. In many of the cases cited, the evidence, new and old, was made part of the complaint by exhibits, and the practice was impliedly, if not expressly, recognized as the correct one. In the case of Trustees, etc., v. Reynolds, supra, the rule we have stated was declared in a very emphatic way, for it was held that the statements of the exhibit would control the averments in the body of the complaint. This can only be correct to the extent that such exhibits form parts of the complaint, and the decision does not profess to carry it further.

It is an elementary principle, that where an instrument is properly referred to, it becomes part of the pleading making the reference, and thus enters into the record. Broom Legal Maxims, 522. This principle is a familiar one in the chancery practice, and is recognized in numerous cases in our own reports. The question is, whether the instruments are such as may properly be made exhibits; if they are, then, when made exhibits, they form part of the pleading, and are, of course, in the record; if they are not proper exhibits, they are no part of the pleading, so that the controversy turns upon the question whether the instruments are proper exhibits or not.

While we hold that the affidavits and the bill of exceptions containing the evidence given on the former trial may be made exhibits, we hold, also, that they are only part of the pleading, for the single purpose of showing the former evidence and the newly discovered evidence. The exhibits can be al[319]*319lowed no greater force than this. They can not be resorted to for the purpose of aiding the complaint' in any other particular ; their effect must be confined to a statement of the original and the newly discovered evidence; all the other facts essential to the validity of the complaint must be stated in the body of that pleading as in ordinary cases.

The complaint in Hill v. Roach, 72 Ind. 57, was for a review, and was not a complaint for .a new trial, and it was rightly held that the complaint must be .tried by the averments in the body of it, and not by the recitals in the affidavit of a witness.

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Bluebook (online)
100 Ind. 315, 1885 Ind. LEXIS 202, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hines-v-driver-ind-1885.