Lamb v. Lamb

38 P.2d 659, 55 Nev. 437, 1934 Nev. LEXIS 40
CourtNevada Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 17, 1934
Docket3090
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 38 P.2d 659 (Lamb v. Lamb) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Nevada Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lamb v. Lamb, 38 P.2d 659, 55 Nev. 437, 1934 Nev. LEXIS 40 (Neb. 1934).

Opinion

OPINION

By the Court,

Coleman, J.:

This is an application by Doris Lamb for an order requiring her husband, Frank B. Lamb, to deposit with the clerk of this court moneys to cover expenses incident to an appeal, including attorney’s fee. The application grows out of this situation: Frank B. Lamb, as plaintiff, instituted suit for divorce against Doris Lamb in the First judicial district court, in and for Ormsby County, Nevada, upon the trial of which a decree was entered in favor of the plaintiff. Thereafter a -motion for a new trial was made, and in due course was denied. Defendant served her notice of appeal, and filed an undertaking on appeal.

1. When this matter came on for hearing, the respondent made a motion to strike from the files and to dismiss the application for expense money. The court heard both the application and the motion to-strike. The appellant filed affidavits in support of her application, and respondent filed a counter affidavit. We have repeatedly held that it is bad practice to file a motion to strike a motion, or what amounts to a motion (Orleans M. Co. v. Le Champ D’Or F. G. M. Co., 52 Nev. 85, 280 P. 887), hence the motion to strike will be stricken, and we will dispose of the application on the objection made thereto, namely, as to the jurisdiction of the court to hear the application and the matter of allowances. The objection to the jurisdiction of this *439 court to hear this application is based upon the contention that there has not been filed a transcript of the record on appeal, hence there is no appeal before the court in which it can assume jurisdiction.

2. It is well settled in this state that an appeal to this court is perfected by giving a notice of appeal and by filing in apt time the undertaking on appeal. Peran v. Monroe, 1 Nev. 484; Twilegar v. Stevens, 49 Nev. 273, 244 P. 896; American Sodium Co. v. Shelley et al., 50 Nev. 416, 264 P. 980; American Sodium Co. v. Shelley et al., 51 Nev. 26, 267 P. 497; Orleans M. Co. v. Le Champ D’Or F. G. M. Co., supra.

• 3. The appeal having been perfected, this court has jurisdiction to enter certain orders. We so held in American Sodium Co. v. Shelley, 51 Nev. 26, 267 P. 497. The question is, has it jurisdiction to make the order sought in this case ? We think it-has. That this court has jurisdiction to make such allowances as here sought, where the transcript on appeal has been filed, is conceded, as we understand. At any rate, such is the well-settled rule in this state. Buehler v. Buehler, 38 Nev. 500, 151 P. 44. But counsel contend that this is an original proceeding which the court has no jurisdiction to entertain. ■ A grant of jurisdiction implies that there is included in it the power necessary to its effective exercise and to make all orders that will preserve the subject of the action and to aid in making effective any judgment which it may ultimately make upon the disposition of the case upon its merits. A party to a divorce suit is entitled to an appeal from an adverse judgment. If the appealing party be the wife, and all the property of the spouses is held in the name of the husband, her right of appeal would be unavailing unless she can be provided with the means to prosecute it. In such a case the only way to make the appeal effectual and to carry out the intent and purposé of the law is for this court to exercise its appellate jurisdiction. In Matter of Davis’ Estate Et Al., 151 Cal. 318, 86 P. 183, 90 P. 711, 712, 121 Am. St. Rep. 105, in which the transcript had been destroyed by fire following-the 1906 *440 earthquake, the court said: “The jurisdiction of this court on appeal is not determined by the presence or absence of a copy of the record from the trial court— the transcript on appeal. It acquires that jurisdiction immediately upon the filing of the notice of appeal in the lower court, acquires it for all purposes, and it is not divested of its jurisdiction, nor is such jurisdiction suspended, either on account of the failure to file a transcript on appeal, or the loss or destruction of it after it is filed. It is true the statute provides for a certification to this court of the record made in the trial court and upon which the appeal to this court is to be heard, but that has nothing to do with conferring jurisdiction upon this court over the appeal. That is acquired as soon as the notice of appeal is filed, and this court may exercise such appellate jurisdiction long before any transcript is filed, and independent of it. It may dismiss the appeal, stay execution in the court below, or stay further proceedings therein, and make all necessary orders in aid of the appeal. The transcript on appeals is but the statutory method of bringing to the attention of the court the particular proceedings and matters which took place in the trial court and which this court is asked to review, and this is the sole purpose and function of the transcript.” The language quoted is in line with our theory as expressed in American Sodium Co. v. Shelley, 51 Nev. 26, 267 P. 497, supra.

If we were to accept the views contended for by respondent, it would be a repudiation of rule III of this court, which expressly recognizes that the. court has jurisdiction to make orders in cases appealed to the court where no transcript has been filed.

But it is said that petitioner considered this an original proceeding, as is manifested by the fact that her application is entitled just as it was in the trial court. We attach no significance to this fact. Notwithstanding the provision in section 8883 N. C. L., to the effect that the party appealing shall be known as appellant and the adverse party as respondent, at least *441 95 percent of the cases docketed in this court on appeal ignore the provision alluded to. We do not think a party appealing should be penalized in the manner sought for failure to comply with the statute, particularly in view of the fact that it has been honored more in the breach than in its observance.

4. There is no merit in the contention that this court has no jurisdiction to consider the application and to make an appropriate order.

5. The question remaining to be disposed of is the amount to be allowed appellant as suit money. An affidavit has been filed by her, in which she states that she is “absolutely destitute and without any funds whatsoever” with which to prosecute her appeal, and that she has no means of obtaining funds; that she is ill and unable to work; that she is entirely dependent upon her father for the necessities of life, and that for some time he has been unable to provide for her support without seriously impairing his finances, and is unwilling to continué such support of affiant indefinitely; that he is of limited means and unable to provide any part of the funds necessary to the prosecution of this appeal; that respondent is a man of ability and is capable of earning sufficient money to pay all the costs incident to this appeal; that he has means within his control with which to obtain sufficient money to defray the expenses of this appeal, aside from his earning power, and that he has always had ample credit to obtain funds at will, not only from his mother and father, who are wealthy, but from other sources as well.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
38 P.2d 659, 55 Nev. 437, 1934 Nev. LEXIS 40, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lamb-v-lamb-nev-1934.