Lee v. Revolving Airship Tower Co.

111 N.Y.S. 28
Procedural entryThis page is a short order in Lee v. Revolving Airship Tower Co.. Read the opinion of the Court — 127 A.D. 36

Opinion

HOOKER, J.

The petitioner obtained a final order in summary proceedings providing for the removal of the tenant from certain premises owned by the petitioner. Upon the return day of the precept the tenant did not appear, and a final order was entered against him. Later a motion was made by the tenant to open the default and to allow it to come in and defend. The Municipal Court granted the motion to open the default, and with its. conclusion in that respect we agree. As part of the order opening the default, however, it was provided as a condition that the tenant should execute and file with the clerk of the court, on or before the day which was named for the trial, an undertaking in the sum of $4,000, the amount of rent which the petitioner claimed was due from the tenant and unpaid at the time the proceedings were instituted, which undertaking should be signed by two sureties arid approved by a justice of the Municipal Court, and that the sureties should justify and the undertaking be conditioned for the payment, of the said sum of $4,000 to the landlord in the event that it be determined upon the trial of this proceeding that the sum of $4,000 was due for rent as alleged in the petition. As a further ■condition it was provided that the tenant pay the landlord $10 costs and his actual disbursements in the proceedings, and in default of compliance on the part of the tenant with any of the terms of the order it was provided that the tenant’s motion to open the default be denied. The tenant has appealed to this court from so much of the order as directs the execution and filing of the undertaking .named therein.

It is urged by the landlord that section 257 of the Municipal Court act (Laws 1902, p. 1563, c. 580) perforce provides for the opening of defaults by the Municipal Court; section 254 provides in relation to the setting aside of a verdict, or the vacating, amending, or modifying of a judgment in a Municipal Court; section 255 provides for the granting of a new trial in a proper case on the ground of fraud or newly discovered evidence; and section 256 relates to the terms a Municipal Court may impose as a condition for opening any default, or vacating, amending, modifying, or setting aside any judgment. Section 257 provides as follows :

“An appeal shall lie from an order granting or denying a motion, made as provided in the last four sections; as from a judgment; except, that no appeal shall lie in the first instance from an order opening a default and vacating a judgment entered thereon.”

By the terms of section 257 an appeal lies from the order now Under review, unless the proviso contained in that section is sufficiently broad to cover this case. By the language of the proviso the right of appeal is denied in cases where the order opens a default and vacates a judgment. Strictly speaking, that is not this case. The order, it is true, opens the tenant’s default and permits it to come in “and de[30]*30fend this proceeding,” and hence, of course, suspended the operation of the final order; but no judgment was vacated, and hence the proviso cannot apply.

There is another view in which I think we may consider this appeal. It seems to me, from a reading of the sections which have been mentioned, that it was the intent of the Legislature to deny the right of appeal by the party prosecuting in a case where the court has opened the defendant’s default. Certainly an appeal would lie by a defendant from an order denying its motion to open a default suffered by it. In effect that is this case. The conditions imposed for opening the default are not only such as the Municipal Court has no power to grant (section 256, Municipal Court Act), but are, in the nature of things, so harsh and unjust as to be á virtual denial of the motion to open the default. The tenant claims that no rent whatever was due from it to the landlord at the time these proceedings were instituted. The landlord claims that the full sum of $4,000 was üue. The issue in the Municipal Court upon the filing of the tenant’s answer to the landlord’s petition is whether or not any rent was due and unpaid at the time of the institution of the proceedings. It goes without saying that the Municipal Court had no jurisdiction to make a judicial determination that there was $4,000 due from the tenant, upon which the landlord might issue its execution and collect that or any other sum from the tenant. A finding in the Municipal Court that the landlord was entitled^ to the relief demanded in his petition, namely, the final order directing the removal of the tenant from the premises, could in no way be a bar to the defense by the tenant in a proper court' for rent that this sum was not due. The financial circumstances of the defendant are not fully disclosed, and it does not appear whether it is possible for the tenant to obtain the execution of an undertaking for the sum of $4,000 conditioned for the payment of that sum if the prayer of the landlord’s petition be ultimately granted; but, whatever the fact may be in relation to the defendant’s ability to file such an undertaking, this gross abuse of the court’s discretion in relation to the imposition of terms as a condition for opening the default is in effect, we think, a practical denial of the tenant’s motion, and, that being so, an appeal from so much of the order as imposes these unusual conditions lies to this court under the provisions of section 257 of the Municipal Court Act.

What we have already said indicates the view we take of the impropriety of the' conditions imposed. The order appealed from must therefore be modified, by striking out the provision in relation to the undertaking, and, as so modified, affirmed, with costs to the appellant.

GAYNOR and RICH, JJ„ concur. JENKS and MILLER, JJ., dissent, on the ground that the order was not appealable in the first instance.

NOTE.

[a] (Ala. 1907.) Section 1 of the act declaring the power and jurisdiction of the city court of Anniston (Acts 1896-97, p. 324) provides that when exercising the jurisdiction and powers of courts of law such court shall conform to the rules of procedure and practice in the circuit courts of the state; and when exercising the powers and jurisdiction of courts of equity it shall con[31]*31form to the rules of procedure and practice in the chancery courts of the state, except where the rules of practice and procedure are changed by the act. Section 15 provides that all bills of exceptions shall be presented to and signed by the judge of the city court within 30 days after trial, unless such time be extended by order of the court entered in the cause or by agreement of counsel in writing filed therein. Section 5 provides that there shall be two regular terms of court, and specifies their time and duration. Reid, that it was competent for the trial court, within 30 days after the trial, to extend the time for such a period as it in its discretion saw fit, even though such time extended into another term.—Murphy v. St. Louis Coffin Co., 43 South. 212.

[b] (Ala. 1907) Section 15 of the act declaring the power and jurisdiction of the city court of Anniston (Acts 1896-97, p. 331) provides that all bills of exceptions shall be presented to the judge within 30 days after trial, unless such time be extended by order of court entered in the cause or by agreement of counsel in writing filed therein. Reid,

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Lee v. Revolving Airship Tower Co., 111 N.Y.S. 28 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1908).

111 N.Y.S. 28 (Lee v. Revolving Airship Tower Co.) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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