Howell v. Brown

83 S.W. 170, 5 Indian Terr. 718, 1904 Indian Terr. LEXIS 63
CourtCourt Of Appeals Of Indian Territory
DecidedOctober 19, 1904
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 83 S.W. 170 (Howell v. Brown) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court Of Appeals Of Indian Territory primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Howell v. Brown, 83 S.W. 170, 5 Indian Terr. 718, 1904 Indian Terr. LEXIS 63 (Conn. 1904).

Opinion

Gill, J.

An examination of the complaint and supplemental complaint in this action shows it not to be an action upon a foreign judgment, but to be an action upon an account. Clearly, it is a legal action, and has in its main features no elements whatever of an equity action; nor does the judgment of the court below in any wise show that the equity features of the complaint were at any time ever passed upon or decided by the court below. The pleadings, however, do show that the complaint asks of the court below equitable relief, by way of injunction and the appointment of a receiver. While the record does not disclose that the case was by order ever submitted to the master in chancery, or a special master in chancery, by the court below, it does disclose that both parties appeared and gave their testimony before one John Hinkle, who thereafter'filed his report as special master in chancery in the cause, submitting various findings of fact and conclusions of the law to the court, and that the court passed upon these findings and conclusions of law and rendered its judgment thereon after formal exceptions had been filed and argued to such report.

We have heretofore held, in the case of Swinney vs Kelley, 5 Ind. Ter. Rep. 12 (76 S. W. 303), that where parties object to a reference to the master in chancery of a legal cause, and demand a jury trial, it is error in the court to overrule such objections and refuse such jury trial. But in this case we are confronted with an entirely different proposition. Here the parties, for convenience or otherwise, appeared before a special master in chancery and gave their testimony without objection and without exception to the submission of the cause in that form. [735]*735Without exception or objection, the appellees in the trial of the cause below have allowed judgment in said cause to be taken upon the master’s report of the cause to the court in their favor, and received the benefits thereof, if any, and for the first time, in this court, they interpose the objection that it was an action at law, and that, inasmuch as the appellants have filed no motion for a new trial, they cannot be heard by reason thereof in this court; and w*e are asked to say that such cause is not properly before this court, because the action in the court below was an action at law, and no motion for a new trial has been filed. We do not think that such claim should prevail. In othér words, in reviewing causes on appeal to this court, we are of opinion, and so decide, that, when parties have tried a cause in the lower court upon certain theories and procedure without objection, they cannot come into this court, and for the first time raise objections which could have been successfully interposed in the court below, on the ground that the procedure was wrong and thejr opponents failed to object thereto, especially when they them-' selves receive the fruits of such procedure. There is no doubt that, if appellees had objected to reference of this cause to a master and had demanded a jury trial of the lower court, such objection and demand would have been heeded and acceded to.

We sit here to pass upon the same questions that were submitted to the lower court, and those only, except questions of jurisdiction, and perhaps some others going to the foundation of the action. To say that a plaintiff may found his judgment upon the report of a master in chancery after having voluntarily tried his action as an equitable action, and then to hold, because the defendants acceded to such voluntary wish upon his part, and tried the case in the same manner without objection, that defendant should not be allowed to appeal the cause after the manner of procedure whereby the cause was tried, would be to allow the plaintiff to take advantage of his own wrong, and contrary to [736]*736all rules of equity and right doing. We must therefore hold that this court, under the peculiar circumstances of this case, is invested with full power to review and test all the actions and doings of the lower court in the trial of this cause.

Mansf. Dig. §' 4927 (Ind. Ter. St. 1899, § 3132), provides in reference to an error in the adoption of the kind of proceedings, whether equitable or legal, as follows: “Sec. 4927. Such error is waived by failure to move for its correction at the time and in manner prescribed in this chapter, and all errors in the decisions of the court on any of the motions named in this chapter are waived unless excepted to at the time, which may be done by the clerks noting at the end of such decision words of the following import: ‘To which decision the plaintiff (or defendant) excepts.' ” In this case there was no attempt on the part of either party to correct any supposed error with reference to the trial in this case as an equity case, and such error must be held to have been waived; and in support of this position we cite Burton vs Platter, which was a replevin case, and transferred to the equity docket by agreement of all parties, decided by the Circuit Court of Appeals of the Fourth Circuit, and reported in 53 Fed. 901, 4 C. C. A. 95, in which the court uses the following language: “Where an action at law in the Indian Territory, wherein there is no cause of action or defense pleaded that is not as good at law as in equity, and which should be tried at law, is transferred to the chancery docket, and heard and tried by the master, all the parties agreeing thereto and participating in the proceedings, all irregularities of procedure are waived.” See, also, Sparks vs Childers, 2 Ind. Ter. Rep. 187, (47 S. W. 316).

Such being our view, we will proceed to consider the specifications of error assigned by appellants:

Appellant, in his first specification of error, says: “The court erred in holding that the paper"set out on pages 69 and 70 [737]*737of the transcript was a judgment, and could hot be attacked; the same not being a judgment under the Chickasaw law, or any other law known to the civilized world.” The paper referred to and complained of is an account consisting of various items, and amounting to several thousand dollars, headed, “Account made by Joe. H. Riley, October 13th, 1885.” The several items in the account are not dated. The account does not state to whom it is due and payable. The account seems, in its several items, to be against sundry persons. All there is to it is as follows:

“Account made by Joe H. Riley, Oct. 13, 1885.
My son Hamer made 19,800 rails at 351.00 per hundred..! 198 00
And hauling the same, 50 cents per hundred... 99 00
Charlie Anderson, building rock chimney at Gibson Grayson's old place... 22 00
Solomon Harnatubbi made 2,525 at $1.00 per hundred 25 00
Cash .. 60 00
Lyman Frazier and Martin Ishtiaho-cha making rails.— 56 00
Cash borrowed (at the time his baby died)... 50 00
Five year old steer at $25.00 (half was mine). 12 50
Harvey Nail (for work)... 16 70
Pat Littlepage worked five months at $50.00.1— 250 00
Chandler (for work)....... 150 00
Dick McCuen (for making rails at Gibson Grayson's old . place) and wanted a certain dun horse Piney. 75 00
J. H. Riley and wife (for board 17 months at $10.00 each) . 340 00

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
83 S.W. 170, 5 Indian Terr. 718, 1904 Indian Terr. LEXIS 63, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/howell-v-brown-ctappindterr-1904.