Lewis v. Sittel

165 F. 157, 91 C.C.A. 191, 1908 U.S. App. LEXIS 4733
Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit·Decided November 7, 1908·No. No. 2,724·Published·Cited by 6 cases

Opinion

SANBORN, Circuit Judge.

On July 13, 1905, in an action pending in the United States court for the central district of the Indian Territory, a judgment was rendered that the plaintiff, Edward D. Sittel, recover of the defendants, Allen Wright, O. W. Argp, and Yancey Lewis, the possession of a certain lot. of land, $435 damages, and the costs of his suit. On July 33, 1905, upon the petition of Wright and Lewis, to which Argo was not a party, a writ of error was allowed by the United States Court of Appeals' in the Indian Territory to review that judgment. On May 13, 1906, Sittel moved the Court of Appeals of the Indian Territory to dismiss the writ because Argo had not been made a party to it. Wright and Lewis answered that the reason why Argo had been omitted was that he was not a resident of the Indian Territory when the writ was sued out and his residence was unknown, but that it had lately been discovered, and they and Argo prayed that he might be joined a party plaintiff in the proceeding, but the court declined to grant the application and dismissed the writ, and this ruling is assigned as error.

In the appellate courts of the United States the rule is that all the parties to a suit or proceeding, who appear from the record to have an interest in the order, judgment, or decree challenged by the appeal or writ of error, must be made parties to the proceeding or must be given a notice equivalent to summons and severance before the court will proceed to a decision of the merits of the case, and this to the end that the successful party may be at liberty to enforce his judgment, decree, or order without delay against those parties who do not desire to have it reversed, and that the appellate court may not be required to decide the same question more than once upon the same record. Masterson v. Herndon, 10 Wall. 416, 19 L. Ed. 953; Hardee v. Wilson, 146 U. S. 179, 181, 13 Sup. Ct. 39, 36 L. Ed. 933; Davis v. Mercantile Trust Co., 152 U. S. 590, 14 Sup. Ct. 693, 38 L. Ed. 563; Gray v. Havemeyer, 3 C. C. A. 497, 505, 53 Red. 174, 1825; Farmers’ Loan & Trust Co. v. McClure, 78 Fed. 211, 213, 24 C. C. A. 66, 68; Dodson v. Fletcher, 78 Fed. 214, 215, 24 C. C. A. 69, 70.

The Court of Appeals in the Indian Territory held that the time for suing out its writ of error was limited to six months after the judgment was rendered in the trial court by the Act of March 3, 1905, c. 1479, § 12, 33 Stat. 1081 (U. S. Comp. St. Supp. 1907, p. 208), but counsel for the plaintiffs in error argue that this was an error, and that iheir application to make Argo a party should have been granted and their writ should have been sustained because the time for procuring and the manner of prosecuting writs of error from that court were those prescribed by Mansfield’s Digest for such writs from the Supreme Court of Arkansas, and not those which conditioned writs from the United States Circuit Court of Appeals of the Eighth Circuit to the United States Circuit Courts. The time for suing out a writ of [159] error from the Supreme Court of Arkansas to its subordinate courts was three years, and in case the party procuring such a writ satisfied the court, by due proof on affidavit, that the consent of a party who ought to have been joined could not have been procured by reason of his absence from the state, that court was authorized to allow the prosecution of the writ without his joinder. Mans. Dig. Ark. c. 40, §§ 1276-1281 (Ind. T. Ann. St. 1899, c. 17, §§ 778-783). The contention is that these provisions of the statutes of Arkansas fixed the time and manner of prosecuting the writ from the Court of Appeals of the Indian Territory in this case because Congress by the act of March 1, 1895, chapter 145, § 11, 28 Stat. 698, enacted that that court should have such jurisdiction, powers, and superintending control over the courts in the Indian Territory as the Supreme Court of Arkansas had over the courts of that state, and that the provisions of chapter 40 of Mansfield’s Digest relating to the jurisdiction and powers of the Supreme Court of that state, to appeals and writs of error, and to the trial and decision of causes were extended over the Indian Territory so far as they were applicable. IE the congressional legislation had stopped here, the position of counsel might have been tenable. But before the writ of error from the Court of Appeals in the Indian Territory was allowed in this case, the act of March 3, 1905, c. 1479, § 12, 33 Stat. 1081 (U. S. Comp. St. Supp. 1907, p. 208), had provided:

“TJiat hereafter all appeals and writs of error shall ho taken from Hie United Slates courts in the Indian Territory to the United States Court of Appeals in the Indian Territorj, and from the United States Court of Appeals in the Indian Territory to the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit in the same manner as is now provided for in eases taken by appeal or writ of error from the Circuit Courts of the United States to the Circuit, Court of Appeals of the United States for the Eighth Circuit.”

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Lewis v. Sittel, 165 F. 157, 91 C.C.A. 191, 1908 U.S. App. LEXIS 4733 (8th Cir. 1908).

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