Hofferbert v. Williams

70 N.E. 405, 32 Ind. App. 593, 1904 Ind. App. LEXIS 119
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedMarch 16, 1904
DocketNo. 4,706
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 70 N.E. 405 (Hofferbert v. Williams) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hofferbert v. Williams, 70 N.E. 405, 32 Ind. App. 593, 1904 Ind. App. LEXIS 119 (Ind. Ct. App. 1904).

Opinion

Black, J.

The appellant was the plaintiff, and in his complaint it was stated that he was the owner in fee simple and in possession of a tract of land in Huntington county, particularly described, containing about five and one-half acres; that the appellees “continuously and repeatedly trespass thereon by driving over the same with teams and vehicles without plaintiff’s consent, and over his objection, and that they claim some title or interest therein adverse to plaintiff’s title, and the right to enter thereon, and deny plaintiff’s title thereto, which claim and denial of title is repeated and circulated, to plaintiff’s damage in the sum of $100, and which prevents the sale of plaintiff’s said real estate, and constitutes a cloud thereon, and such trespasses are a continuing injury to plaintiff’s possession, to his damage in the sum -of $100. Wherefore plaintiff asks judgment for $200 damages, and for a decree perpetually enjoining said defendants, and each of them, from trespassing on plaintiff’s said real estate, or interfering with plaintiff’s possession, or slanderiijg plaintiff’s title, and that he also have a decree quieting his title to said real estate, and for all other proper relief.” The issue formed on this complaint was tried by jury, the verdict being for the appellees; whereupon, on a subsequent day of the same term, judgment was rendered that the appellant take nothing by his suit herein, and that the appellees recover of him their costs. On the next following day, upon his motion made orally -and bond filed by the appellant, the court ordered a new trial as of right. At a subsequent day of the same term, the appellant filed an amended complaint in which he alleged “that he is the owner in fee simple and in the possession of a tract of land situate in said county [describ[595]*595Lag it] ; that the defendants claim that said land was, prior to plaintiff’s purchase thereof, dedicated by his grantors to the public for use by the public as a highway, and said defendants persist in such use and such claim, which use is wrongful, and such claim is false and injurious to the plaintiff, and a cloud upon his title which prevents the sale thereof, to the damage of the plaintiff in the sum of $100. Wherefore plaintiff asks judgment and a decree of the court quieting his title to said real estate, and for $100 damages for interfering with his possession and title, and for all other proper relief.” The appellees answered this amended complaint by general denial, and at a subsequent term the court, upon the motion of the appellees, struck out the order granting a new trial as of right. This action of the court is questioned on appeal.

The statute provides for the granting of a new trial as of right in actions for the recovery of the possession of real estate, and also in actions for determining and quieting the question of title to real estate, brought by any person either in or out of possession, or by one having an interest in remainder or reversion, against another who claims title to or interest in the real estate adverse to the plaintiff, although the defendant be not in possession.

The question whether the appellant was entitled to a new trial as of right may be determined by deciding upon the character of his original complaint. Whatever may be said of the amended complaint filed after the granting of the new trial, he can not complain of the action of the court depriving him of a new trial, without cause shown therefor, if the issue tried was not such as to entitle him to such additional trial. The tendency of the decisions is not to extend the terms of the statute allowing new trials as of right to cases other than those clearly falling within its provisions. Butler University v. Conard, 94 Ind. 353. In that case it was held that where a cause of action to quiet title to real estate, or to recover possession thereof, is improperly joined [596]*596with a cause of action in which a new trial as of right is not allowable, the law as to new trials relating to causes of action of the latter class should govern, and a new trial as of right should not be granted.

In Bradford v. School Town of Marion, 107 Ind. 280, it was said: “If the judgment was for the defendant generally, and was an adjudication of all the issues presented, then, since the parties saw fit to litigate causes of action which were improperly joined, in some of which either party would have been entitled to a new trial as of right, with an action for damages, in which a new trial as of right was not allowable, the order granting a new trial was improperly made, and that which set it aside was correct.”

A new trial as of right will not be granted where title to real estate is but incidentally involved. Davis v. Cleveland, etc., R. Co., 140 Ind. 468; Thompson v. Kreisher, 148 Ind. 573.

In Wilson v. Brookshire, 126 Ind. 497, 9 L. R. A. 792, the rule is said to be that when a cause proceeds to judgment, which embraces a substantive cause of action, in which a new trial as a matter of right is not allowable, then, even though it embraces other causes in which a new trial as of right is allowable, the policy of the law is to regard that cause of action as controlling in which a second trial as of right is not permitted.

Where the action was originally one for injunction and damages, and so continued, to the end, and there was a supjDlemental complaint seeking damages and possession, also a cross-complaint to quiet title, it was held that a new trial as of right could not properly be demanded. Richwine v. Presbyterian Church, 135 Ind. 80. See, also, Taylor v. Calvert, 138 Ind. 67.

In Bennett v. Closson, 138 Ind. 542, it was held that if two or more substantive causes of action proceed to judgment i-n the same case, whether properly or improperly joined, if one of them would entitle the losing party to a [597]*597new trial as of right, and the other would not, a new trial as of right Will not be granted See, also, Jones v. Peters, 28 Ind. App. 383.

In Nutter v. Hendricks, 150 Ind. 605, where a paragraph of complaint seeking damages for trespass and an injunction was joined with another paragraph for the recovery of the possession of real estate, and the cause went to-finding and judgment on both paragraphs, it was held that a new trial as of right was not demandable. The court said that “if the whole ease made by the complaint is not OHO to recover possession of, or to quiet title to real estate, or both, then a new trial without cause shown is not provided for or allowed by law.” See, also, Seisler v. Smith, 150 Ind. 88.

In Atkinson v. Williams, 151 Ind. 431, it was held thafy where the complaint, judging from its general scope and tenor, sought only the recovery of damages for an alleged trespass to real estate and an injunction to prevent the threatened continuation of the same, on the ground that the plaintiff had no other adequate remedy, neither party was entitled to a new trial as of right.

The amended complaint filed after the granting of the new trial as of right showed that the appellees were merely claiming that the real estate in question was a .public highway, and were using it as such, and did not show that they were claiming or exercising any private title or interest in the real estate.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
70 N.E. 405, 32 Ind. App. 593, 1904 Ind. App. LEXIS 119, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hofferbert-v-williams-indctapp-1904.