Keiser v. Mills

69 N.E. 142, 162 Ind. 366, 1903 Ind. LEXIS 10
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 24, 1903
DocketNo. 20,109
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 69 N.E. 142 (Keiser v. Mills) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Keiser v. Mills, 69 N.E. 142, 162 Ind. 366, 1903 Ind. LEXIS 10 (Ind. 1903).

Opinion

Monks, J.

A petition was filed by appellants and others on' January 24, 1901, in the clerk’s office of the court below, for the construction of a ditch under the drainage law of 1885 and the amendments thereto (§§5622-5631, 5644-5646 Burns 1894). Notice was given to the owners and occupants of the several tracts of land described in the petition in the manner prescribed by law> and the case was docketed. No remonstrance having been filed, the same was referred to the drainage commissioners as required by §5624, supra. Said commissioners afterwards made their report to the court, from which it appeared that lands were named as affected by said drainage which were not named in the petition. The court fixed February 15, 1902, as the time for the hearing of said report, and the petitioners gave notice to the owners of such lands of the filing of said report and the date fixed by the court for the hearing thereof. The notices were served on such landowners, which included'appellees, on January 29 and 30, 1902. On February 15, 1902, appellees filed a verified [368]*368application for leave of court to file a remonstrance against the construction of said ditch, signed by more than two-thirds of the landowners named in the report of the drainage commissioners. On the same day appellees, who were owners of land named in the report of the drainage commissioners and not named in the petition, each filed a separate verified remonstrance against the report of said drainage commissioners, for the first, fifth, eighth, ninth, and tenth statutory grounds of remonstrance provided in §5625, supra. On March 3, 1902, the court denied the motion of appellees asking leave to file the remonstrance of two-thirds of said landowners, and refused to permit said remonstrance to be filed, to which ruling of the court appellees jointly and severally objected and excepted. Afterwards appellants filed a separate motion to strike from the files each remonstrance of appellees setting up said statutory causes, upon the ground that the same was not filed within the time required-by statute, which motion the court, on April 11, 1902, overruled, to each of which rulings of the court appellants at the time objected and excepted. A trial of said cause resulted in a judgment in favor of appellees. Each of said rulings of the court on the motions to strike out said remonstrances is challenged by appellants jointly.

It will be observed that the report of'the drainage commissioners was filed in October, 1901, and the report of the drainage commissioners was set for hearing on February 15, 1902, long after the taking effect of the act approved March 8, 1901 (Acts 1901, p. 161, §§5623, 5624, 5626, 5628 Burns 1901), but as these proceedings were instituted before the passage of said amendatory act of March 8, 1901, by the express provision of section four of said act (§5628, supra), said act does not apply to this case, but the same is governed by the law in force when this proceeding was begun.

[369]*369Appellees insist that the appeal should he dismissed “for the reason that appellants have not given the names of all the parties to the record in their assignment of errors.” Only parties to the judgment appealed from are necessary parties to an appeal. Moore v. Franklin, 145 Ind. 344; Lowe v. Turpie, 147 Ind. 652, 690-693, 37 L. R.. A. 233; Capital Nat. Bank v. Reid, 154 Ind. 54; McClure v. Shelburn Coal Co., 147 Ind. 119. This was a term-time appeal, and appellants were not required to make their co-parties to the judgment co-appellants with them in this cause. §§647a, 647b Burns 1901; Lowe v. Turpie, supra; Roach v. Baker, 145 Ind. 330; Goodrich v. Stangland, 155 Ind. 279, 281, 282.

Objection is made that the names of appellees in the assignment of errors are not the names by which they are known in the record. In the transcript the initials of the Christian names of many of the appellees are given, while in the assignment of errors the first Christian name is given in full. Eor example, lands of “J. A. Commons,” whose name appears in the assignment of errors as “James A. Commons,” were assessed with benefits, and he filed a sepárate remonstrance to the report of the drainage commissioners, signed “J. A. Commons.” Appellants’ motion to strike out this remonstrance was overruled by the court. This ruling of the court was challenged by the assignment of errors in this language: “The court erred in overruling the motion of appellants to strike from the files and reject the remonstrance of James A. Commons, signed by the name and style of J. A. Commons.” As it is not shown that James A. Commons is not the correct full name of the J. A. Commons named in the record, we must presume that it is.

Rule six of this court requires that the assignment of errors shall contain the full names of all the parties. In giving the full names of all appellees in the assignment [370]*370of errors, said rule was complied with. This court has refused to dismiss appeals in drainage cases under the act of 1885 and amendments when this rule was not complied with, on account of the fact that it is only necessary in proceedings under the circuit court drainage law (§5623 Burns 1894) to describe the lands affected as belonging to the person, who appears to be the owner according to the last tax duplicate or transfer book kept by the county auditor. Goodrich v. Stangland, supra; Gunn v. Haworth, 159 Ind. 419, 421. This, however, furnishes no ground for dismissing an appeal in such cases when said rule is complied with by giving the full names.

It is claimed by appellees that the record does not show that any land belonging to Thomas C. Lennen, a petitioner and appellant, was assessed with benefits, and that, therefore, no error was committed by the court against him in overruling the joint motions of appellants to strike out said remonstrances; that for this reason the assignment of errors is not good as to him, and, being joint by all the appellants, must fail as to all of them, under the rule that a joint assignment of error must be good as to all or it is good as to none. Armstrong v. Dunn, 143 Ind. 433, 436, 437. Under the liberal provision made by §5623, supra, that it is sufficient to give the court jurisdiction over all the lands described and the power to fix the lien, “if they are described as belonging to the person who appears to be the owner according to the last tax duplicate or record of transfer,” we can not presume that no land belonging to the petitioner Thomas O. Lennen was assessed with benefits merely because the name of Thomas O. Lennen was not given in the report of the drainage commissioners as the owner of land benefited by the construction of said ditch. For aught that appears from the record, said appellant Thomas O. Lennen was the owner of several tracts of land assessed with benefits, but described as belonging to the [371]*371person wlio appeared to be the owner according to the last tax duplicate or record of transfer.

Many other objections are made to the record by appellees, as .reasons why the judgment should be affirmed, but all of them fall within the rule that parties to an appeal can bring before the court only such questions as affect their rights, and not such as affect the rights of others. Poundstone v. Baldwin, 145 Ind. 139, 143, 144; Cooper v. Shaw, 148 Ind. 313, 316.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Bakelandt v. De Baets
71 N.E.2d 473 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1947)
Carson v. Oklahoma Dredging Co.
1931 OK 385 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1931)
Click v. Arnold
149 N.E. 178 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1925)
Rockey v. Hershman
138 N.E. 339 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1923)
Benbow v. Gray
128 N.E. 607 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1920)
Hall v. Kincaid
115 N.E. 361 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1917)
Vandalia Railroad Co. v. Mizer
112 N.E. 522 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1916)
Helms v. Cook
108 N.E. 147 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1915)
Rayl v. Kirby
102 N.E. 136 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1913)
Morton v. Gaffield
95 N.E. 593 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1911)
Seybold v. Rehwald
95 N.E. 235 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1911)
Evansville Terminal Railway v. Heerdink
92 N.E. 548 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1910)
Town of Windfall City v. State ex rel. Wood
92 N.E. 57 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1910)
Ginn v. Hinton
91 N.E. 1093 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1910)
Ross v. Hannah
91 N.E. 232 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1910)
Thorn v. Silver
89 N.E. 943 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1909)
Pitser v. McCreery
88 N.E. 303 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1909)
Pein v. Miznerr
84 N.E. 981 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1908)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
69 N.E. 142, 162 Ind. 366, 1903 Ind. LEXIS 10, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/keiser-v-mills-ind-1903.