Hostetter v. Brooks Elevator Co.

61 N.W. 49, 4 N.D. 357, 1894 N.D. LEXIS 44
CourtNorth Dakota Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 22, 1894
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 61 N.W. 49 (Hostetter v. Brooks Elevator Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering North Dakota Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hostetter v. Brooks Elevator Co., 61 N.W. 49, 4 N.D. 357, 1894 N.D. LEXIS 44 (N.D. 1894).

Opinion

Wallin, J.

This action is to recover the value of certain wheat. The plaintiff claims a special property in the wheat, under a chattel mortgage. The salient facts are as follows: On the 16th day of January, 1890, one William Rogers was the owner of a certain quarter section of land in Pembina County, and on that day executed and delivered to M. S. Hostetter & Son his promissory note for the sum of $410.50 and interest at 12 per cent, per annum, and to -secure the note, executed and delivered on said day a chattel mortgage in the usual form, whereby he mortgaged to said M. S. Hostetter & Son all crops of every name and nature, to be sown, grown, planted, or harvested on said real estate during the years 1890 and 1891. On January 21, 1890, the mortgage was filed in the office of the register' of deeds of Pembina County. The note and mortgage were sold and transferred to the plaintiff, and certain payments were made and indorsed on the note in October and November, 1890. In the season of 1890 there was sown, raised, and harvested on the land a crop of wheat, by said Rogers, to the amount of 1,200 bushels. Plaintiff claims that Rogers unlawfully sold 1,000 bushels of said wheat to the defendant, and delivered the same to the defendant in the month of October, 1890, and that the defendant converted the wheat by mixing it with other wheat, and shipping it out of the state. Plaintiff seeks to recover only to the extent of his mortgage lien. Judgment was entered for the plaintiff for $393.15, the amount of his claim, with interest and costs.

The action was tried by the court without a jury, and findings of fact and conclusions of law were made and filed on the 18th day of May, 1892. A bill of exceptions was settled on July 20, 1892. The record transmitted to this court embraces the judgment, findings, and bill of exceptions. Subsequently to the settlement of the bill and the entry of judgment, the Judge of the District Court, who presided at the trial, certified to the testimony adduced at the trial; and thereby, as claimed by the [359]*359appellant’s counsel, such testimony became a part of the judgment roll below, and a part of the record transmitted to this court. The certification of the testimony is claimed to have been made under the provisions of Ch. 82, Laws 1893. We are clear that such testimony, except so far as it may have been embodied in the bill of exceptions, forms no part of the record, and hence cannot be considered in this court. Chapter 82, Laws 1893, had not been enacted when the trial was had, nor did such statute become a law until long subsequent to the entry of judgment and the filing of the roll embracing the bill of exceptions. The statute, in terms, is made to apply only to such cases as are “tried in the District Court according to the provisions of this act.” When so tried, “no exceptions need be taken or finding's of fact made.” It certainly is true that the trial of the action was not had “according to the provisions of the act,” and it is equally true that findings of fact were filed, and that exceptions thereto were duly settled and filed. Manifestly, therefoi-e, the act cited cannot apply to the record under consideration.

To certain of the findings of facts, as filed in the court below, counsel for the defendant took exception; and such exceptions, after being settled and allowed by the trial court, were filed and incorporated with the record. In such bill there were no specifications of errors of law either made, or attempted to be made. In this court, appellant’s counsel has made an assignment of errors embracing 24 errors, 14 of which relate to errors of law accruing at the trial in rulings upon the admission of evidence. The assignments of error based on such rulings at the trial cannot be reviewed in this court. The statute and a rule of this court are explicit in requiring errors of law accruing at the trial to be specified in the bill or statement. Where a motion for a new trial is made, — whether based upon a bill or a statement, — the errors must be specified. Compiled Laws, § 5090. Where there is no jury tidal, and no motion is made, alleged errors of either law or fact must nevertheless be specified in a statement framed [360]*360in the manner required in cases where a motion is made. Laws 1891, Ch. 121; Sup. Ct. Rule No. 13.

Nor is the appellant’s assignment of errors of law based upon rulings at the trial sufficient under Rule 15 of the rules of this court. None of said sasignments embrace any reference to the abstract. Rule 15 requires that each assignment of error in this court shall embrace a reference to the specification in the bill 01-statement to which it relates, and “also to the page or pages of the abstract in which the matter is found upon which the error is assigned.” True, the requirement of the rule may be relaxed by this court, in the exercise of its discretion and in furtherance of justice; but the rule was made to be observed by counsel, and it will be enforced unless, for good reasons, it is relaxed in furtherance of justice. We have had occasion in two cases to enforce the requirement of Rule 15 in another of its features. See O’Brien v. Miller, (decided at this term) 60 N. W. 841; Investment Co. v. Boyum, (N. D.) 58 N. W. 339. It follows, both under the statute and rule of court, that appellant’s assignments of errors of law based upon rulings upon the admission of evidence will not be considered in reviewing this record.

Turning now to the exceptions to the findings of fact which are embraced in the record, it appears that some of the attempted exceptions are wholly insufficient. This may be said of the first finding of fact, which embraces three distinct and important propositions of fact. To this, defendant files only the following exception: “Finding No. 1 not justified by the evidence.” This is wholly insufficient as a specification. It does not distinctly point to either of the facts found in finding of fact No. 1, nor does it specify wherein the evidence fails to justify the finding of any particular fact. Under the established practice, as embodied in the statute and rule of court, this general form of exception is insufficient, and therefore such exception cannot be considered in disposing of the case. Laws 1891, Ch. 121; Sup. Ct. Rule No. 13. Others of the exceptions filed are obnoxious to the same objection. But we deem it unnecessary to allude to them, further than [361]*361to reiterate the settled rule that exceptions to findings of fact are not sufficient when they do not specify particularly wherein the finding is not sustained by the evidence. In the case under consideration, however, it happens to be true that the enforcement of the statutory requirements governing exceptions to findings of fact will make no difference with the disposition of the case. We have carefully examined the evidence embraced in the bill, with reference to all of the findings of fact, and find that each and all of them have support in the evidence. We may concede that as to some of the findings the evidence is not wholly convincing to our minds. Nevertheless, in the entire absence of rebutting testimony (none was offered,) we are of the opinion that the court below was justified in making the findings, and are entirely clear, in view of the evidence, that this court, sitting only as a court of review, ought not to disturb any of the findings. See Jasper v. Hazen, (N. D.) 58 N. W. 454.

Briefly mentioned, the points in the findings of fact most strenuously combated by the appellant’s counsel are: First,

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Bluebook (online)
61 N.W. 49, 4 N.D. 357, 1894 N.D. LEXIS 44, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hostetter-v-brooks-elevator-co-nd-1894.