Johnson v. Sellers

84 P.2d 744, 53 Wyo. 403, 1938 Wyo. LEXIS 27
CourtWyoming Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 5, 1938
Docket2069
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 84 P.2d 744 (Johnson v. Sellers) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wyoming Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Johnson v. Sellers, 84 P.2d 744, 53 Wyo. 403, 1938 Wyo. LEXIS 27 (Wyo. 1938).

Opinion

*412 Riner, Justice.

The district court of Sweetwater County entered its judgment awarding possession of certain real property, together with damages in the sum of $6.25 for withholding same, and cancelling certain conveyances relative to said property and found by the court to be void in favor of E. C. Sellers, plaintiff in an action pending in that court and against W. A. Johnson and John Borcoman, the defendants therein. These proceedings in error were instituted by the unsuccessful litigants aforesaid, as plaintiffs in error, against Sellers, as defendant in error. The facts so far as necessary to be considered in the disposition of the case will be recited in connection with our examination of the points urged to obtain a reversal of the judgment.

The first contention made is that Sellers in his amended petition filed in said action in the district court above mentioned improperly joined therein a cause of action in ej ectment with one to remove a cloud to the title of - the real property involved, which was in amount 7.2 acres, described by metes and bounds and located in the Southeast Quarter of the Southeast Quarter of Section 9, Township 18 North, Range 107 West of the Sixth P. M.

The plaintiff’s amended pleading referred to above contains three alleged causes of action, the first one being grounded substantially upon the provisions of Section 89-3903 W. R. S., 1931, which reads:

“In an action for the recovery of real property, it shall be sufficient if the plaintiff state in his petition that he has a legal estate therein, and is entitled to the possession thereof, describing the same as required by § 89-1041 and that the defendant unlawfully keeps
*413 him out of the possession; and it shall not be necessary to state how the plaintiff’s estate or ownership is derived.”

Section 89-1041 referred to in the quoted Section reads:

“In an action for the recovery of real estate, the property shall be described with such certainty as will enable an officer holding an execution to identify it.”

The second cause of action repeats the allegations thus set forth in the first one and adds averments that the defendants have excluded plaintiff from the rents and profits of said premises, stating the amount of the loss thereby, and refused to account therefor. The third cause of action is one for the cancellation of two allegedly void conveyances and their removal as clouds upon the plaintiff’s title to the property aforesaid. These instruments are- therein described as a sheriff’s deed to said property delivered to the defendant Borco-man and based upon an erroneous execution sued out upon a judgment which did not authorize an execution of the character thus issued to be placed in the hands of the sheriff, and also a warranty deed from the defendant Borcoman to the defendant Johnson purporting to convey to the latter the property included in the sheriff’s deed aforesaid.

It appears from the record that plaintiff’s amended petition was verified and filed September 14, 1936. A demurrer was filed by the defendants aforesaid on September 15, 1936, which according to its introductory paragraph appears to be directed solely at the second cause of action set forth in the original petition inasmuch as this demurrer bears the date of September 9, 1936. At the time of filing that demurrer it is evident that the original petition had been entirely superseded by the amended pleading and was no longer in the case. It appears additionally that nothing was filed by the defendants affecting plaintiff’s amended petition *414 in the nature of a complaint on account of misjoinder of causes of action in that pleading- averred until June 30, 1937, when the defendants filed a demurrer to the third, cause of action contained in plaintiff’s amended petition, and therein stated:

“That the cause of action alleged in the said Amended Petition in trespass is improperly joined with the cause of action alleged in said Amended Petition seeking to clear title, and for which reasons the plaintiff’s suit herein cannot be maintained.”

By that time the defendants had answered the. plaintiff’s amended pleading, said answer being filed on November 14, 1936, and a reply thereto had been subsequently filed, demurrers interposed to it and ruled on by the court; the cause had been tried to the court with a jury in attendance, the jury finally discharged on account of the parties to the litigation having each moved the court for directed verdicts in their favor, and briefs had been ordered to be submitted in connection with the argument of the cause.

Section 89-1008 W. R. S., 1931, reads as follows:

“When any of the defects enumerated in § 89-1006 do not appear upon the face of the petition, the objection may be taken by answer, and if no objection be taken either by demurrer or answer, the defendant shall be deemed to have waived the same, except only the objection to the jurisdiction of the court, and that the petition does not state facts sufficient to. constitute a cause of action.”

Section 89-1006 so far as here pertinent enacts that:

“The defendant may demur to the petition only when it appears on its face either:
******
“6. That several causes of action are improperly joined. ******”

Applying these statutes to the situation presented *415 by the matter in hand, it would appear that the defendants had clearly waived the alleged defect of misjoinder of causes of action in plaintiff’s amended petition. In the case of Mau v. Stoner, 15 Wyo. 109, 87 Pac. 434, 89 Pac. 466, this court, referring to the statute embodied in Section 89-1008, supra, has heretofore ruled that where the misjoinder of separate causes of action was not apparent upon the face of the petition the defect was required to be raised by answer or it would be waived. Of course, if apparent, a demurrer to the pleading must be filed in apt time or the same result would follow.

But even if we should-be mistaken in this view of the point raised, we are inclined to think that under the statutory provisions and authorities presently to be mentioned, it was quite proper for the plaintiff to unite in his amended petition the several causes of action described above. Section 89-601 W. R. S., 1931, reads in part:

"The plaintiff may unite several causes of action in the same petition, whether they are such as have heretofore been denominated legal or equitable or both, when they are included in either of the following classes:
“1. The same transaction, or transactions, connected with the same subject of action. ******”

In Keens v. Gaslin, 24 Neb. 310, 38 N. W.

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Carter v. Thompson Realty Co.
131 P.2d 297 (Wyoming Supreme Court, 1942)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
84 P.2d 744, 53 Wyo. 403, 1938 Wyo. LEXIS 27, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/johnson-v-sellers-wyo-1938.