King v. Milner

63 Colo. 405
CourtSupreme Court of Colorado
DecidedSeptember 15, 1917
DocketNo. 8670
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 63 Colo. 405 (King v. Milner) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Colorado primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
King v. Milner, 63 Colo. 405 (Colo. 1917).

Opinion

Allen J.

The original complaint of the plaintiff contained two counts. The first count, in substance, alleged that the de[406]*406fendant “did seize or cause to be seized” the plaintiff in Moffat county, and conveyed to and imprisoned in Routt county, all without right or authority so to do. The second count sets up a cause of action for malicious prosecution.

The defendant filed a demurrer to the original complaint. The court sustained the demurrer as to several of its grounds, and subsequently ordered “that the said plaintiff have time arid until 20 days from the date hereof in which to amend his complaint.”

The plaintiff in due time then filed his first amended complaint, and the same is in such form as fairly to indicate that the plaintiff intended thereby to overcome the objections raised by the demurrer to the original complaint, as those objections are represented in the several grounds of the demurrer as to which it was sustained. One of these grounds was predicated upon alleged ambiguity in the complaint, and the first amended complaint, being full and specific as to the alleged facts relied on, removed to a great extent the ambiguity, if any there was. Another of such grounds of the demurrer was that in the first count a cause of action, the place of trial of which is in Moffat county, is improperly joined with a cause of action the place of trial of which is Routt county. Evidently with the intention of meeting this objection, the first amended complaint was made to consist of five counts; the first count relating to plaintiff’s arrest by a town marshal in Moffat county; the second relating to his detention by the sheriff of Moffat county; the third relating to his detention by the under-sheriff of Routt county; and the fourth concerning plaintiff’s imprisonment in Routt county by the jailer. The fifth count was one for malicious prosecution.

The first amended complaint was stricken from the files, the reasons therefor not clearly appearing in the record, and the plaintiff was given leave to amend “in accordance with the previous order of the court.”

A second amended complaint was filed, containing two causes of action, each in a separate count. The first count was based upon the same facts, practically, as appear in the first four counts of the first amended complaint,, including [407]*407those that are alleged in the first count of the original complaint. The second count contains a cause of action for malicious prosecution. The recovery of damages prayed for is much greater than the relief demanded in the original complaint.

The defendant moved to strike the second amended complaint from the files. The motion alleged numerous grounds, and was sustained by the court as to several of such grounds, which may be summarized as follows:

1. That the second amended complaint contains a misjoinder of causes of action, and the same misjoinder that was held to be contained in the original complaint, and that therefore the previous order of the court as to amending was disregarded by the plaintiff.

2. That the second amended complaint is a departure from the original complaint in that it asks for other, further and different relief than that asked in the original complaint.

The plaintiff elected to stand upon the second amended complaint, whereupon the court dismissed the action and rendered judgment in favor of defendant.

The principal error assigned is based upon the trial court’s sustaining defendant’s motion to strike the second amended complaint.

The defendant in error calls our attention to two rules of pleading and practice. The first of these is with reference to waiving error, committed by a trial court in sustaining a demurrer, by pleading over. The alleged error now under consideration does not involve this rule, and the same, therefore, need not be examined. The second rule, and the one chiefly relied on by defendant in error, is that which concerns striking amended pleadings. Of this rule, it was said in Enright v. Midland Co., 33 Colo. 341, 80 Pac. 1041, as follows:

“The right to amend a complaint when leave is granted for that purpose, does not contemplate that the averments of the original shall be practically restated. When an amended complaint is, in effect, but a repetition of the one [408]*408which it purports to amend, a motion to strike for that reason is well taken.”

Both of the rules above mentioned are followed and applied quite universally, but generally under circumstances where their application does not work an injustice. In the case of Watkins v. Iowa Cent. Ry. Co., 123 Iowa 390, 98 N. W. 910, the opinion states, and proceeds throughout upon the theory that, “these rules must not be so construed as to prevent a party from presenting his cause of action or defense to this court on appeal * * * Our rules of procedure are not intended as a trap to catch the unwary.”

The rule with reference to striking amended pleadings should not be unduly extended. From what has been said with reference to the contents of the pleadings in the case at bar, it appears that the second amended complaint was not a mere repetition of the original complaint. We believe that under the facts and circumstances of this case we. can adopt the following paragraph from the opinion in Grand Lodge I. O. O. F. v. Troutman, 73 Kan. 35, 84 Pac. 567:

“It is true, as defendants argue, that courts will not permit the filing.of pleadings which are mere repetitions of former ones, held defective on demurrer. To do so would evidence such a lack of respect for judicial authority and would so interfere with the orderly administration of justice as to warrant the court in going to the extent of striking out a pleading, but where, as here, the amended pleading contains some additional facts, as well as fuller and more explicit statements of those set forth in the original pleading, and where the amendments are apparently made in an honest effort to state a cause of action, and meet objections previously made to the original pleading, a motion to strike out the amended one will not lie.”

In the case at bar the plaintiff amended in compliance with the rules stated in Rockwell v. Holcomb, 3 Colo. App. 1, 31 Pac. 944, as follows:

“The right to amend a complaint, even after leave granted by the court, is limited to an accurate and correct expres[409]*409sion in legal form of a cause of action which has theretofore been inaccurately or insufficiently expressed. Givens v. Wheeler, 6 Colo. 149.”

The second amended complaint, with fuller and more explicit statements, sets up the same causes of action as were intended, apparently, to be alleged in the original complaint.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
63 Colo. 405, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/king-v-milner-colo-1917.