Lanquist v. Grossman

282 Ill. App. 181, 1935 Ill. App. LEXIS 636
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedNovember 5, 1935
DocketGen. No. 37,902
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 282 Ill. App. 181 (Lanquist v. Grossman) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lanquist v. Grossman, 282 Ill. App. 181, 1935 Ill. App. LEXIS 636 (Ill. Ct. App. 1935).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Sullivan

delivered the opinion of the court.

Plaintiff, Russel E. Lanquist, sued defendants on their alleged contract of guaranty in a first class action in the municipal court to recover $5,220, principal and interest claimed to be due on a promissory note. The cause was tried by the court without a jury and finding and judgment rendered against plaintiff.

December 4, 1934, we denied defendants’ motion theretofore made to dismiss plaintiff’s appeal. We arc asked now to reconsider our ruling on their motion to dismiss this appeal, to vacate our order denying said motion and to allow their motion to dismiss the appeal at this time.

The judgment was rendered against plaintiff by the trial court June 13,1934. He filed his notice of appeal June 15, 1934. Proof of service on defendants of the filing of the notice of appeal was filed June 15, 1934. Defendants’ appearance in the appeal was filed June 23, 1934. Plaintiff did not within 10 days after filing his notice of appeal June 15,1934, file a praecipe designating the parts of the trial court record he desired incorporated in the record on appeal as provided in par. a, sec. 1 of rule 1 of the Rules of Practice of this court, and par. a, sec. 1 of rule 36 of the Rules of Practice and Procedure of the Supreme Court. Thereafter, July 17, 1934, plaintiff filed a second notice of appeal and proof of service of notice to defendants of the filing of same. Defendants’ motion of July 19, 1934, to dismiss the appeal perfected by the filing of plaintiff’s notice.of appeal June 15, 1934, and to strike from the files the documents filed July 17, 1934, “purporting to be a ‘notice of appeal,’ ” and “a notice of filing ‘notice of appeal,’ ” was denied by the trial court. Pursuant to his notice of appeal of July 17, 1934, plaintiff filed a praecipe for record July 26, 1934, and his notice to defendants on the .same day of the filing of same. He filed a report of proceedings at the trial in the trial court September 4, 1934, and the record including same was transmitted to and filed in this court October 3,1934.

Defendants insist that, inasmuch as there is no provision in the Civil Practice Act (ch. 110, Ill. State Bar Stats. 1935) or in the rules of practice of the Supreme Court for a second notice of appeal, such notice is a nullity, and since the first notice of appeal has admittedly been abandoned because of noncompliance with the rules of court, this proceeding should be dismissed.

Plaintiff contends that where an appellant has omitted some essential step in prosecuting his appeal (such as his failure to file his praecipe for record within 10 days after his notice of appeal was filed), so as to render the appeal ineffective or so as to cast doubt upon its validity,- if the time for taking an appeal as specified in the statute has not expired, three courses are open to him: (1) He may dismiss his appeal and sue out a second appeal; (2) he may abandon his appeal and, without dismissing same, proceed with a second appeal ; or (3) he may sue out a second appeal without dismissing his first and bring before the reviewing court the record with reference to both appeals and let the reviewing court determine which appeal should be prosecuted and which should be dismissed.

Respectable, authority has been cited by plaintiff in support of each of these propositions, but none of the cases cited was decided in the light of requirements governing appeals such as are contained in our Civil Practiée Act and the rules of our Supreme Court. In his suggestions filed in this court opposing defendants ’ motion to dismiss this proceeding, plaintiff states that he “neglected to file a praecipe for record within ten days after the date of his notice of appeal, and fearing that a motion might be made to dismiss his appeal for that reason, plaintiff elected to abandon the first appeal and prosecute a second appeal as he believed he had a right to.”

The question presented is one of first impression under the Civil Practice Act and the rules of court adopted supplementary thereto. Sec. 4 of art. 1 of the act declares that it “shall be liberally construed to the end that controversies may be speedily and finally determined according to the substantive rights of the parties, ’ ’ and sec. 2 of art. 1 reposes in the Supreme Court the power to make rules of pleading, practice and procedure for the city, county, circuit, Appellate and Supreme Courts, supplementary to but not inconsistent with the provisions of the act “for the purpose of making this act effective for the convenient administration of justice and otherwise simplifying judicial procedure.”

When the motion to dismiss was originally presented to us, actuated in some measure, at least, by a desire to consider the appeal on its merits, we thought, when we denied defendants ’ motion to dismiss, that a liberal construction of the act and the rules of court might permit the procedure followed by plaintiff; but, after due and careful consideration of the matter, and having in mind its importance, we are impelled to the conclusion that our order disallowing defendants’ motion to dismiss should be reconsidered. It is apparent that the provision of the act declaring that it should be liberally construed did not contemplate a total or even partial disregard of the rules established by the Supreme Court for orderly and convenient procedure to the end that the rights of the parties might be speedily and finally determined on appeal.

Subdivision 1, sec. 74, of the Civil Practice Act, Ill. State Bar Stats. 1935, ch. 110, If 202, provides:

“Every order, determination, decision, judgment or decree, rendered in any civil proceeding, if reviewable by the Supreme or Appellate Court of this State by writ of error, appeal or otherwise, shall hereafter be subject to review by notice of appeal, and such review shall be designated an appeal and shall constitute a continuation of the proceeding in the court below. ”

Subdivision 1, sec. 76, provides:

“No appeal shall be taken to the Supreme or Appellate Court after the expiration of ninety days from the entry of the order, decree, judgment or other determination complained of; . . . ”

Subdivision 2, sec. 76, provides:

“An appeal shall he deemed perfected when the notice of appeal shall he filed in the lower court. After being duly perfected no appeal shall be dismissed without notice, and no step other than that by which the appeal is perfected shall be deemed jurisdictional.” (Italics ours.)

Subdivision 1, sec. 77, provides:

“Appeals shall lie to the Appellate or Supreme Court, . . . under such limitations and conditions as may be imposed by law and subject to such rules of court as- may "be established and promulgated under this chapter. ’ ’

Rule 33 of the Supreme Court prescribes in detail the contents and form of the notice of appeal, and Rule 34 provides inter alia:

“(1) A copy of the notice by which the appeal is perfected shall be served upon each appellee and upon any co-party who does not appear as appellant, and upon any other person or officer entitled by law to a notice of appeal, within five days after said notice of appeal is filed in the lower court.

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Bluebook (online)
282 Ill. App. 181, 1935 Ill. App. LEXIS 636, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lanquist-v-grossman-illappct-1935.