Hoe v. Sanborn

3 Abb. Pr. 189
CourtNew York Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 15, 1867
StatusPublished

This text of 3 Abb. Pr. 189 (Hoe v. Sanborn) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hoe v. Sanborn, 3 Abb. Pr. 189 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1867).

Opinion

Parker, J.

The appellant in his notice of appeal- states, that he appeals from the judgment in the action, and from three several orders of the Supreme Court, which he specifies. The respondent, at the last September term of the court, moved to dismiss the appeals from the orders; when the court directed the motion and the appeal to be heard together.

[191]*191The orders thus appealed from are :

1. An order affirming an order of the special term, denying a motion for a re-taxation of costs, and to correct the judgment roll.

2. An order dismissing an appeal from an order of special term refusing a mandamus.

3. An order dismissing an appeal from an order of special term, denying a motion to correct the case.

These orders, clearly, do not come within the class of orders described by subdivision 2 of section 11 of the Code, for neither of them, in effect, determines the action and prevents a judgment from which an appeal might be taken. Nor does subdivision 3 of that section include them. That subdivision authorizes an appeal from a final order affecting a substantial right, made in a special proceeding, or upon a summary application in an action after judgment. None of these orders was a fined order in the action. They were all made pending the appeal to the general term, from the judgment entered upon the verdict. One of them is denominated, in the notice of appeal, an order dismissing an appeal from an order refusing a mandamus, and is claimed to be an order in a mandamus case. That is manifestly a mistake, as all the papers relating to that motion, which are entitled at all, are entitled in this action. This is true of the order to show cause; of the order denying the motion; of the notice of appeal from that order; and of the order of the general term dismissing the appeal, which is the order here appealed from,, and it is described in the notice of appeal to this court, which is entitled, in this action, as the order made in this action at a general term thereof, dismissing the appeal from the order of the special term refusing a mandamus.

This is the only occasion in which a mandamus is alluded to in the whole course of the proceedings in reference to that motion. The order to show cause makes no allusion to it, and there is nothing in the proceedings indicating that they have, in fact, any reference to a mandamus. It is impossible now to treat them, or the order in which they have resulted, otherwise than as a proceeding in the action.

None of the orders appealed from being final orders are [192]*192the subjects of an appeal to this court, and the appeals therefore should be dismissed.

The first subdivision of the section authorizes this court, upon an appeal from a judgment, to “ review any immediate order involving the merits, or necessarily affecting the judgment.” So that we are brought to the question whether these ■ orders are reviewable under that provision.

The first of these orders, is the order in relation to the re-taxation of costs, and the correction of the judgment roll. The appeal from the judgment, I think, brings up this order for review. The question involved is, which party is entitled to costs, and this being a matter of strict legal right, may well be held to involve the merits, as such questions have been treated in the supreme court (St. John v. West, 4 How. Pr., 329; Tallman v. Hinman, 10 How. Pr., 89). I have no doubt that the motion at general term was decided correctly, and the order therein made, properly affirmed. The ■ plaintiff was entitled to costs. The action is “ for the recovery of money,” and the plaintiff has in it recovered more than fifty dollars. It is true that the verdict of the jury was for but $10 84. But the action was upon a promissory note for $467 88. The defendant admitted that the plaintiffs were entitled to recover the whole amount of the note, except $150, and interest; and as a condition of putting the cause over the circuit, upon his motion, imposed by the court, stipulated that the plaintiffs might enter judgment for the amount so admitted, without costs, the cause to proceed as to the amount of $150, and.all other matters in controversy in the actiqn. Judgment was entered upon- the stipulation, and subsequently the action was tried at the circuit, upon the claim of the $150, and resulted in a verdict for $10 84. The plaintiffs, in the judgment entered upon the verdict, recited the entry of the former judgment, and having had their costs of the action adjusted, inserted them also in the judgment. The defendant insists that the judgment should be the ordinary judgment upon a verdict, omitting all reference to the former judgment, and that he is entitled to costs, and not the plaintiff. The case is within both the letter and the spirit of the statute, which give costs to the plaintiff “ in an action for [193]*193the recovery of money, when the plaintiff shall recover fifty dollars.” This the plaintiffs have done in this action. It is to be remembered that the defendant had offered to the plaintiffs judgment for the amount of the demand, less $150, and interest, which had been declined. At the time of the giving of the stipulation, the question of costs rested upon the reducing the recovery to the amount offered. If the plaintiff should recover any part of the $150, they would be entitled to full costs, and that question of costs constituted the other matters in controversy ” reserved in the stipulation from being affected by the judgment to be entered thereon.

In regard to the correction of the judgment, it follows that the order of the special term was right, so far as any question of substantial right is concerned, if the order as to costs was correct. As to any formal correction, whether it should have been made or not, was a question of practice, and is not reviewable here.

The second order complained of, is the order dismissing the appeal from an order of special term, denying a motion that the judge who tried the cause re-settle the case by re-inserting therein the following words: The defendant requested the court to charge the jury, that if they find from the evidence that the saw was not as warranted, the return of it absolved the defendant from the payment of the price. The court refused so to charge, and defendant excepted.” And the third order, of which a review is sought, is the one dismissing an appeal from an order of the special term, denying an application to the court to correct the case, by inserting the same matter.

Whether the general term was right or not, in holding that these orders were not appealable, becomes entirely immaterial, in the view which we take of the ease upon the merits, as well in respect to the decision of the special term, sought to be reviewed by the appeal to the general term, as to the judgment itself. The action was upon a promissory note for $467 88. The defence was, that the note was given for circular saws, which were warranted to be of a good quality ; that they were not of a good quality,'but entirely worthless. Upon the trial no question was made upon the breach of * [194]*194warranty, except in relation to one of the saws purchased, the price of which was $150.

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Related

Passinger v. . Thorburn
34 N.Y. 634 (New York Court of Appeals, 1866)
Milburn v. Belloni
12 Abb. Pr. 451 (New York Supreme Court, 1861)
Passenger v. Thorburn
35 Barb. 17 (New York Supreme Court, 1860)
St. John v. West
4 How. Pr. 329 (New York Supreme Court, 1850)
Tallman v. Hinman
10 How. Pr. 89 (New York Supreme Court, 1854)

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Bluebook (online)
3 Abb. Pr. 189, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hoe-v-sanborn-nysupct-1867.