Huggins v. John Morrell & Co.

176 Ohio St. (N.S.) 171
CourtOhio Supreme Court
DecidedApril 29, 1964
DocketNo. 37921
StatusPublished

This text of 176 Ohio St. (N.S.) 171 (Huggins v. John Morrell & Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Huggins v. John Morrell & Co., 176 Ohio St. (N.S.) 171 (Ohio 1964).

Opinion

O’Neill, J.

Plaintiff, in his brief, concedes that each of the causes of action joined in his petition does not affect all the parties to the action, i. e., both defendants named in the petition.

No other position is possible, because causes of action numbered II, III and IV affect only one or the other of the defendants.

The causes of action numbered II and IV do not affect Morrell, the packer, in any way. The cause of action numbered III does not affect Kocian, the retailer, in any way.

Although not all the plaintiff’s causes of action affect both defendants, the plaintiff does not separately pray for judgment against one or both defendants as they were separately or jointly affected by the different causes of action but, instead, prays for joint and several judgment in a lump sum against the two named defendants.

At common law, this petition would be subject to demurrer because causes of action can not be united unless each of the causes of action affect all parties to the action.

This common-law rule was incorporated in the original Ohio Code of Civil Procedure by the Act of March 11, 1853. Succes[174]*174sive Sections 80 and 81 of that act (51 Ohio Laws, 57, 70) became, successively, Sections 5019 and 5020 of the Revised Statutes of 1880; Sections 5058 and 5059, Revised Statutes, in the Act of April 16, 1900 (94 Ohio Laws, 268, 279), which was a partial recodification of the Code of Civil Procedure; Sections 11306 and 11307 of the General Code; and, finally, Sections 2309.05 and 2309.06 of the Revised Code.

Under the plain language of those sections, as originally enacted, a demurrer to the petition, upon the ground that the stated causes of action do not affect all parties to the action, must then have been sustained. This rule has been upheld in many jurisdictions. See 1 Corpus Juris Secundum, 1284 to 1288, Actions, Section 98. However, because of subsequent amendments thereto, a question arises as to whether there is now such a duty.

In 1864, in 61 Ohio Laws, 910, Section 1, an act supplementary to the Code of Civil Procedure was enacted, which provided “that in all actions for foreclosure of mortgages given to secure the payment of money, or in which a specific lien for money claimed to be due, is sought to be enforced, the plaintiff may also ask in his petition a judgment for the money claimed to be due; and such proceedings shall be had, and judgment rendered thereon, as in other civil actions for the recovery of money only.”

Thereafter, in King v. Safford (1869), 19 Ohio St., 587, this court held:

“Under the act of Feb. 19th, 1864 (S. and S., 575), the holder of a note secured by mortgage may, in a single action, demand and have a judgment against all the makers of the note, and a sale of the mortgaged premises, although the mortgage is executed only by a part of the makers of the note.” (Emphasis added.)

The Act of April 16, 1900, was a partial recodification of the Code of Civil Procedure, and the Act of February 19, 1864, referred to above, was integrated into the recodification of the Code as subsection 8 of Section 5058, Revised Statutes (Section 80 of the Act of March 11, 1853), 94 Ohio Laws, 268, 279 (1900), and has since been a part of the statute permitting [175]*175joinder of certain causes of action and now appears as Section 2309.05(1), Revised Code.

The 1900 Recodification Act, in addition to inserting subsection 8 in Section 5058, inserted in Section 5059 (Section 81 of the Act of March 11, 1853) the language, “except as otherwise provided.” This language now appears in Section 2309.06, Revised Code, and makes paragraph (I) of Section 2309.05, Revised Code, the exception to the requirement of Section 2309.06 that “causes of action united as provided in Section 2309.05 * * * must affect all the parties.”

In Fielder, Admr., v. Ohio Edison Co. (1952), 158 Ohio St., 375, this court, following the common law as codified in Section 2309.06, Revised Code, held in the fourth paragraph of the syllabus :

“An administrator’s cause of action for pain and suffering of his decedent may not be joined with a cause of action for the wrongful death of the same decedent; both causes of action do not affect all the parties to the action as required by statute.” (Emphasis added.)

The court, in its opinion, sets forth, as follows, at page 382, the test by which the applicability of Section 2309.06, Revised Code, is to be determined:

“* * * The supreme test as to whether a party is affected by a cause of action is, does he have a legal interest in rights which are the subject matter of the cause of action.”

The Legislature amended Section 2309.06, supra, effective November 9, 1959, to permit “a joinder by an executor or administrator of a cause of action for the wrongful death of his decedent * * # with a cause or causes of action for injuries to the person or property, or both, of his decedent” and “a joinder by a married woman of a cause of action for personal injury or property damage with a cause of action brought by her husband, for loss of services or expenses or property damage, or a cause of action of a minor for personal injury or property damage with a cause of action brought by his parent or guardian for loss of services or expenses or property damage, when both or all of such causes arise out of the same wrongful act or acts. ’ ’

The petition now before us joins causes of action which [176]*176admittedly do not affect all parties to the action and are not covered by the exceptions discussed previously in this opinion.

Plaintiff contends otherwise and grounds his position upon three premises.

As a first premise, the plaintiff asserts that the causes of action which are permitted to be united by Section 2309.05, Revised Code, are excepted from the requirement of Section 2309.06, supra.

Section 2309.06, supra, provides that causes of action united as provided in Section 2309.05, supra, “must not require different places of trial, and, except as otherwise provided, must affect all the parties to the action.”

Plaintiff attempts to rely upon the words, “except as otherwise provided,” and asserts the novel argument that these words make the requirement of Section 2309.06, supra, that causes of action united as provided in Section 2309.05, supra, must affect all parties to the action, inapplicable to the specific classes of actions which Section 2309.05 permits to be joined.

The language of Sections 2309.05 and 2309.06, the sequence of these sections, and the historical development of the language of these sections refute the plaintiff’s position.

As a second premise, plaintiff asserts that the language in Section 2307.19, Revised Code, “any person may be made a defendant who has or claims an interest in the controversy adverse to the plaintiff, or who is a necessary party to a complete determination or settlement of a question involved therein,” creates an implication of permission to join the defendants in this action. This argument has no basis in the history of our Code of Civil Procedure or the decisions interpreting it.

It should be noted that this section was originally enacted in 1853 in the original Code of Civil Procedure.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
176 Ohio St. (N.S.) 171, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/huggins-v-john-morrell-co-ohio-1964.