List v. Jockheck

52 P. 420, 59 Kan. 143, 1898 Kan. LEXIS 28
CourtSupreme Court of Kansas
DecidedMarch 5, 1898
DocketNo. 10300
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 52 P. 420 (List v. Jockheck) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Kansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
List v. Jockheck, 52 P. 420, 59 Kan. 143, 1898 Kan. LEXIS 28 (kan 1898).

Opinion

Doster, C. J.

The history of this case as shown by the record before us, and known to us through the record of other phases of it is as follows :

In May, 1885, the plaintiff in error recovered a judgment against the defendant in error for damages for wrongfully causing the death of her husband. On the trial the defendant offered evidence tending to prove that he had effected a settlement of the case with the plaintiff and had secured from her an agreement of dismissal. This evidence was rejected for the [145]*145reason, as we assume, that no pleadings appropriate to the issue thus raised had been filed. Upon the rendition of judgment against him, the defendant moved for a new trial upon the ground,'among other things, that he had effected a settlement of the case, and had secured from the plaintiff an agreement of dismissal which she had violated by forcing the action to trial. This motion was overruled, and the defendant made and procured a settlement of the case for this court. This, however, was never filed.

Subsecjuently the defendant instituted proceedings under section 568 of the Civil Code, being section 601 of the Code as revised and contained in the General Statutes of 1897, to vacate the judgment which had been rendered against him. Under these provisions and in conformity to the practice in such cases, the judgment was temporarily vacated to allow the defendant to show why it should be finally set aside. From the order of temporary vacation made upon this interlocutory proceeding, the plaintiff prosecuted error to this court which held that the order of vacation was not final in its nature, and therefore error would not lie therefrom. List v. Jockheck, 45 Kan. 349, 748; 27 Pac. 184. After.the temporary vacation of the judgment, the defendant filed a supplemental answer alleging the previous settlement of the case, the agreement of .dismissal entered into by plaintiff, and her refusal to abide by its terms. To this answer the plaintiff filed ' a reply admitting the execution of the papers in settlement and dismissal of the case, and alleging that the same were procured from her by the fraud and deception of the defendant, and also pleading the former trial and proceedings in bar. Upon the issues arising upon this supplemental answer and the reply to it, the case was tried to a jury which returned a [146]*146general verdict and special findings of fact in defendant’s favor. The case has been again brought to this court upon claims of error occuring upon the last mentioned trial. The principal of these claims are as follows : First, the court wrongly imposed upon the plaintiff the burden of proof, by requiring her to establish the allegations of fraud contained in her reply, and also an allegation in the reply of the agency for the defendant of a certain person who induced her to make the settlement. Second, error in holding that the defendant, having accepted the benefits of the efforts of this claimed agent, was not, because thereof, estopped to deny the agency. Third, in the rejection of certain offered testimony. Fourth, the admission in evidence of the agreement of settlement and dismissal. Fifth, refusal to give certain instructions asked by plaintiff, and the giving of certain other instructions. Sixth, in overruling plaintiff’s motion for judgment on the pleadings. Seventh, in rejecting plaintiff’s evidence of former adjudi.cation. Eighth, in overruling plaintiffs motion for new trial. Some of these claims of error are argued under sub-heads and minor divisions. We have given careful attention to all of them. None of them are tenable. The last two only need be specially noticed.

It is urged that the record shows a trial, verdict and judgment for plaintiff, motion for new trial, the overruling of the same, and the making by defendant of a case for this court, and that many years afterward the defendant, without any showing of cause filed a supplemental answer and brought on for trial the issue of the making of an agreement for the settlement and dismissal of the case, an issue’which had been litigated and determined on the motion for new trial; that the ruling upon such motion for new trial was res judicata and could not again be [147]*147made a subject of controversy, and that it was error to reject the plaintiff’s offer of evidence in proof of such former adjudication.

i Record must proceedtngs "lien' It will be perceived that this claim of former adjudication involves a consideration of the ruling of the court below temporarily vacating the judgment by the interlocutory proceeding brought therefor. It may be admitted that the question of the defendant’s fraud in procuring the making of the agreement of settlement and dismissal of the case was involved in his motion for new trial, and that the order overruling sucji motion until vacated was res judicata, but the conclusiveness and continuation of effect of such order must give way to the subsequent order.

The interlocutory proceeding brought to temporarily vacate the judgment and to let in the defendant’s new defense under his supplemental answer, could not have been made if the order refusing a new trial was to continue in effect. The rightfulness of the order refusing the new trial was therefore involved in the interlocutory proceeding, and the question of its effect as res ju-dicata can only be determinéd by an examination of the record of that proceeding. All that was decided when that interlocutory proceeding was before this court for review, List v. Jockheck, supra, was, that the order of temporary vacation and leave1 to the defendant to open the case anew, could not be reviewed until the new issue had been tried and .the plaintiff had suffered an adverse judgment. This has now occurred, and if the case as now presented contained the record of the interlocutory proceedings, the effect of the court’s order overruling the motion for new trial could be considered, but the record of those proceedings is not before us. They were not offered in evidence by the plaintiff. We do not have for con[148]*148sideration a claim of error predicated upon the rejection of this record. The claim of error that is made is predicated upon the rejection of the record of the case down to and including the order overruling the motion for new trial. We cannot determine that the order overruling the motion for new trial was rightly made and should therefore stand, because we do not have before us the record of the subsequent proceedings which resulted in the vacation of such order.

We cannot hold the order overruling the motion for new trial to be res judicata, because we know it has been vacated, and we cannot hold the order vacating it erroneous, because we do not have before us the record of the order of vacation. It is said that we do not judicially know that such order of vacation was made, because the record of such vacation is not before us. This is a mistake. While we do not have before us the record of the interlocutory proceeding containing the order of vacation, yet, the record that is before us contains two distinct rulings by the trial judge stating that such order of vacation was made. This is sufficient to impart knowledge to us judicially. Upon the trial under the supplemental answer and reply, the plaintiff offered in evidence the case made for this court by the defendant after the overruling of his motion for new trial. This offer was rejected, and rightly so.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
52 P. 420, 59 Kan. 143, 1898 Kan. LEXIS 28, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/list-v-jockheck-kan-1898.