Jasper & Chicago Motor Express, Inc. v. Ziffrin Truck Lines, Inc.

172 N.E.2d 586, 132 Ind. App. 235, 1961 Ind. App. LEXIS 138
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedMarch 7, 1961
DocketNo. 19,576
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 172 N.E.2d 586 (Jasper & Chicago Motor Express, Inc. v. Ziffrin Truck Lines, Inc.) 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
Jasper & Chicago Motor Express, Inc. v. Ziffrin Truck Lines, Inc., 172 N.E.2d 586, 132 Ind. App. 235, 1961 Ind. App. LEXIS 138 (Ind. Ct. App. 1961).

Opinion

Ax, C. J.

Appellee (plaintiff below), Ziffrin Truck Lines, Inc., on April 12, 1960, brought this action in the Marion Superior Court against Louis Ziffrin and Jasper & Chicago Motor Express, Inc., alleging that the defendants'conspired to destroy appellee’s motor carrier business in areas where appellee and appellant compete. Both appellee and appellant are federally-certified motor common carriers.

In its complaint appellee prayed for a permanent injunction enjoining: (1) the defendant Louis Ziffrin 'from inducing customers of appellee to transfer their business from appellee; (2) the appellant Jasper & Chicago Motor Express, Inc. from accepting any shipments •from persons who were appellee’s customers at the time the suit was commenced; (3) the defendant Louis Ziffrin from inducing any employee of appellee to leave its employment; and (4) enjoining appellant Jasper & Chicago Motor Express, Inc. from employing any person employed by appellee. .....

Upon the issués formed by the complaint and answer, the court found for thé appellee (plaintiff) and further found and decided that an injunction should issue against the defendants until June 1, 1963. Under the terms of said judgment and decree, essentially—

• — T. ’ Louis Ziffrin was enjoined (a) from soliciting any present employee of appellee to leave its employ, and from (b) soliciting for Jasper & Chicago Motor Express, [237]*237Inc., or any carrier, traffic which he had solicited or serviced for appellee from February 23, 1960 to April 12, 1960.

2. Appellant, Jasper & Chicago Motor Express, Inc., was enjoined from:

(a) Soliciting for employment with it “any present employee” of appellee.

(b) Employing “any present employee” of appellee.

(c) Soliciting or accepting for shipment directly, or through interline, any traffic of five stated shippers from specified points.

Thereafter, within time, appellant filed a motion to modify the judgment and a motion for new trial, alleging that the decision of the court was not sustained by sufficient evidence and was contrary to law. Upon the overruling of both motions by the court, appellant proceeded to set in motion this appeal, filing within time the transcript and assignment of errors containing two specifications, one claiming error of the court in overruling the appellant’s motion to modify the judgment, and the other essentially that the court below erred in assuming jurisdiction over appellant’s operation in interstate commerce over its federally certified routes.

Appellee, thereafter within thirty days, appeared in this court specially and filed a motion to dismiss this purported appéal for lack of jurisdiction, for the reason that the appellant has failed to name in its assignment of errors either as an appellant or appellee, Louis Ziffrin, its co-defendant below who was also a party to the judgment below.

[238]*238[237]*237It has long been recognized that a failure to name a co-defendant in the assignment of errors is a jurisdic[238]*238tional defect. This was recognized in Rogowski v. Kaelin (1942), 111 Ind. App. 584, 41 N. E. 2d 954, where the court said at page 585:
“Appellant does not by his assignment of errors attempt to make any of his codefendants below, all of whom were co-parties to the judgment, parties here. This court is therefore without jurisdiction. Thompson v. C. C. C. & St. L. Rwy. Co. (1938), 105 Ind. App. 97, 11 N. E. 2d 81; State ex rel. Michael v. Cooper (1936), 101 Ind. App. 588, 198 N. E. 119; Voss v. Balz (1932), 203 Ind. 221, 179 N. E. 552.”

While there was some question of whether this principle was still applicable after the revision of Supreme Court Rule 2-6 in 1943, this court in Allmon et al. v. Review Board of Indiana Employment Security Division, etc., et al. (1953), 124 Ind. App. 212, 116 N. E. 2d 115, held that Rule 2-6 still required that all parties to the judgment be named as parties on appeal. In enunciating that principle this court there said at page 216:

“In the case of Moore v. Franklin et al. (1896), 145 Ind. 344, 44 N. E. 459, the court announced the general rule to be that all parties to a judgment must be made parties in the assignment of errors on an appeal, and, if not, the appeal will be dismissed. See also Woodfill and Others v. The Town of Greensburgh (1862), 18 Ind. 203.
“It was further held in the case of Smith v. Fairfield (1901), 157 Ind. 491, 61 N. E. 560, as follows:
“ ‘It has been often and uniformly held by this court that when part only of joint judgment defendants take a vacation appeal under . . ., all the persons jointly bound must be named in the assignment of error as appellants.’ (See cases cited.)
“It has been decided many times by this and the Supreme Court that the assignment of errors constitutes the appellant’s complaint and that the full names of all the parties must be set out in the as[239]*239signment of errors. Gunn v. Haworth (1902), 159 Ind. 419, 64 N. E. 911, and cases cited therein. See also Second Nat. Bank of Robinson, Ill. v. Scudder (1937), 212 Ind. 283, 6 N. E. 2d 955. The rule is further announced in the case of Gourley v. Embree (1894), 137 Ind. 82, 36 N. E. 846, as follows:
“ ‘The assignment of errors constitutes the appellant’s complaint in the Supreme Court, and by it he must bring the proper parties before the court, and properly set forth the causes upon which he relies for relief. A failure to do any of these things is fatal to his standing in court. He cannot have a lawsuit by himself, nor can he select from the parties to the final judgment such as he chooses to name, and omit the others. He must name all who are affected by the judgment appealed from. If he has not done so, the assignment of error will be held unavailing whenever the defect is brought to the notice of the court’.”

In 1958, the Supreme Court adopted the same rule in Baugher et al. v. Hall, Receiver, etc. (1957), 238 Ind. 170, 147 N. E. 2d 591. It is thus clear that the Rules of the Supreme Court still require that all parties to the judgment below be named as parties in the assignment of errors.

The appellant in its brief opposing the motion to dismiss of Ziffrin Truck Lines, Inc., takes the position that its co-defendant below, Louis Ziffrin, need not have been named a party on appeal because he is neither a party “seeking relief by the appeal” nor a party “to the judgment whose interests are adverse to the interests of the appellant’s under Rule 2-6.”

This argument is not only unsupported by the cases, but ignores Supreme Court Rule 2-3, which reads in part as follows:

“. . . All parties to the record in the trial court shah be parties on appeal without further notice.

[240]*240It is apparent that the appellant, in its argument, has chosen to ignore the command of Rule 2-3 that its co-defendant below, Louis Ziffrin, shall be a party on appeal. Rule 2-6 provides for the naming of the parties, but it does not specify who the parties shall be.

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Bluebook (online)
172 N.E.2d 586, 132 Ind. App. 235, 1961 Ind. App. LEXIS 138, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jasper-chicago-motor-express-inc-v-ziffrin-truck-lines-inc-indctapp-1961.