Horton v. Western Union Telegraph Co.

200 So. 44
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJanuary 13, 1941
DocketNo. 6249.
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 200 So. 44 (Horton v. Western Union Telegraph Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Horton v. Western Union Telegraph Co., 200 So. 44 (La. Ct. App. 1941).

Opinion

TALIAFERRO, Judge.

Plaintiffs’ son, John Lee Horton, a minor, according to the allegations of the petition, was thrown 'from the bicycle on which he was riding, after delivering a telegram for defendant, his employer, and was injured. The boy’s face was bruised and cut, two teeth were knocked out and others loosened. The cuts and bruises, it is alleged, have resulted in permanent disfigurement. Plaintiffs, for the use and benefit of their son, sue for workmen’s compensation for a period of four hundred (400) weeks. They allege that defendant is engaged in a hazardous business; that the son was serving defendant as a messenger boy, his duties being to call for, receive and deliver telegrams, cables, etc., in and around the town of Winnfield, Louisiana; that he was required by defendant to use a bicycle on the streets and highways in the discharging of his duties, and was necessarily forced to traverse said streets and highways when burdened with heavy motor vehicular traffic.

Defendant excepted to the petition as disclosing no right of action as to Mrs. Horton, for the reason that the right of action alleged upon, if any exists; rests solely in the father. The petition was excepted to as disclosing neither a cause nor a right of action, as to the father, on the ground that: “ * * * there is no allegation that plaintiff’s son was engaged in a hazardous employment incident to or in the course of the trade, business or occupation of the defendant, which trade, business or occupation was within itself hazardous under the Workmen’s Compensation Law of Louisiana.”

The exceptions were all sustained. The suit was dismissed. Plaintiffs appealed devolutively.

Motion to Dismiss Appeal.

Defendant moved to dismiss the appeal for the reason that prior to the perfection thereof, plaintiffs, on their own motion, were granted a devolutive appeal to this court which they abandoned by not perfecting prior to return day. In other words, that having been granted an order of devolutive appeal and not perfecting the appeal by the furnishing of required bond within legal delay, plaintiffs, thereby, for all time, lost, by abandonment, the right to appeal devolutively from the judgment. Art. 594 of the Code of Practice; Brickell *46 et al. v. Conner et al., 10 La.Ann. 235; Jenkins v. Bonds, 3 La.Ann. 339, and Sterling v. Sterling’s Heirs, 35 La.Ann. 840, are relied upon to sustain this position.

The cited article of the Code of Practice, in part, reads: “From the moment when the citation of appeal is served on the appellee, the appellant can not withdraw his appeal, * * *

It is contended by appellee that since the first order of appeal was moved for and granted in open court, this was the equivalent to citation of appeal and that thereafter the appellants were without right to withdraw the appeal directly, or indirectly by' abandoning the same through failure to timely give the required bond.

Appellee concedes that if plaintiffs had originally procured orders of appeal, sus-pensive and devolutive, and had not perfected either appeal, they could, within one year from the date of judgment, appeal devolutively; and that had they originally appealed süspensively and failed to perfect the appeal, this failure would not bar them from thereafter appealing devolutively.

It is well settled by recent adjudications of the Supreme Court in construing Art. 594 of the Code of Practice, and other pertinent laws, that an appeal is not, in the true sense of the word, “taken” until the order granting the same has been made effective by filing the required bond within the delay fixed by law. Service of citation of appeal is' abortive unless the bond is timely filed. The order of the court granting the appeal is without operative effect until and unless the bond is timely filed. Until such bond is filed there is no appeal to abandon. When the bond is filed the appeal is “taken” — perfected— and the right of all parties concerned, fixed. The filing of the appeal bond, save for restricted purposes, completely divests the trial court of further jurisdiction in the case. Jurisdiction is retained for all purposes until the bond is filed. The cases cited and relied upon by appellee have been tacitly, if not expressly, overruled by the more recent jurisprudence. Police Jury of Parish of St. James v. Borne et al., 192 La. 1041, 190 So. 124; Vacuum Oil Company v. Cockrell, 177 La. 623, 148 So. 898; Lafayette et al. v. Farr et al., 162 La. 385, 110 So. 624.

All of these cases hold that the appeal is not “taken” or perfected until the bond has been timely filed and that a devolutive appeal is available to the appellant for one year from the date of the judgment, although the first appeal was not perfected. But, appellee calls attention to the fact that in neither of these cases did the appellant first take only a devolutive appeal.

In Police Jury of Parish of St. James v. Borne et al., supra, and in other cases, orders for suspensive,and devolutive appeals were simultaneously granted. In such instances the appellant could have perfected cither appeal by giving appropriate bond because he had been granted two different appeals. It was optional with appellant to perfect either, both or neither of them. Neither was perfected, but thereafter a new order of devolutive appeal was procured and the appeal perfected. The court upheld these appeals as being valid.

We can perceive no difference in legal contemplation between such cases and the present one in which only a devolutive appeal was granted in each instance. We do not think there is any difference.

In Marine Oil Company, Ltd., v. Cutler Bros. Inc., et al., La.App., 179 So. 485, 487, this court held squarely contrary to defendant’s contention here. We said therein: “With reference to the obtaining of more than one order for a devolutive appeal during such term or session, appellants’ counsel, in their brief, correctly give our view when they state that ‘the appellant can secure as many orders of devolutive appeal as he desires where he has not attempted to perfect the same by filing a bond. Since the appeal could not be perfected without filing a bond, there is no way to abandon something that never existed.’ ”

The motion to dismiss is not well founded. It is overruled.

Counsel of appellants now concedes that 'the exception of no right of action directed against Mrs. Horton’s right to sue herein is well founded. The judgment sustaining it is admitted to be correct. There can be no dispute on the question. Civil Code, Art. 221, as amended; Scarborough v. Louisiana Railway & Navigation Company, 145 La. 323, 82 So. 286; In re Monrose et al. 187 La. 739, 757, 175 So. 475.

Counsel also concede that if recovery is allowed, the term should be limited 'to one hundred (100) weeks as in case of serious permanent disfigurement. Subsection 1, Par.' (d) 16 of Section 8, of the Employer’s Liability Act, Act No. 242 of 1928, p. 358. *47 But, plaintiff does seriously insist that defendant’s business is hazardous. He admits, as is true, that the telegraph business is not eo nomine declared hazardous by the act but contends that since the conduct of its business necessarily involves dealing, with and operating wires and cables charged with electrical current, thereby its business is made hazardous.

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

Related

Fontenot v. J. Weingarten, Inc.
232 So. 2d 143 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1970)
Boggs v. Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company
125 So. 2d 419 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1960)
Allen v. Travelers Insurance Co.
124 So. 2d 367 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1960)
Viator v. New Hotel Monteleone, Inc.
92 So. 2d 730 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1957)
Louisiana State Board of Medical Examiners v. Barber
78 So. 2d 60 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1955)
Murphy v. McHughes
66 So. 2d 525 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1953)
Laviollette v. Seaman
65 So. 2d 647 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1953)
Gasoline Plant Const. Corp. v. Blair
38 So. 2d 662 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1949)
Ryland v. R. P. Const. Co.
19 So. 2d 349 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1944)
Sandfield Oil Gas Co. v. Paul
7 So. 2d 725 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1942)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
200 So. 44, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/horton-v-western-union-telegraph-co-lactapp-1941.