Maggert v. Keele

1908 OK 53, 95 P. 466, 20 Okla. 681, 1907 Okla. LEXIS 72
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedApril 13, 1908
DocketNo. 1951, Okla. T.
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 1908 OK 53 (Maggert v. Keele) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Maggert v. Keele, 1908 OK 53, 95 P. 466, 20 Okla. 681, 1907 Okla. LEXIS 72 (Okla. 1908).

Opinion

Hates, <T.

This action arose before Frank J. Feger, a justice of the peace of Enid City township, Garfield county, in which court defendant in error was plaintiff and plaintiff in error was defendant. Plaintiff in error on the 29th day of September, 1904, filed before said justice of the peace his motion to retax the cost in said cause, and on the same day said motion was sustained by the court, and the cost was retaxed, but not, however, as prayed for in said motion. Plaintiff in error appealed from the order of the justice court sustaining his motion to retax the cost to *682 the district court of Garfield county, in which court there was filed on the 20th day of October, 1904, a transcript of the record of said justice of the peace before whom said motion was heard, which said transcript sets out the proceedings had upon said motion and the order made thereon, and with said transcript was filed the motion to retax the cost, also a receipt executed by the said Frank J. Feger, justice of the peace, acknowledging receipt of the sum of $12 paid by plaintiff in error to be applied on the payment of the judgment in said cause and in payment of a portion of the cost therein, but no part of said amount to be applied upon the cost not mentioned in said receipt. At the same time there was also filed in the district court a bill of costs in the justice court. No appeal was taken from the judgment in the main action. On the 23rd day of May, 1905, the cause came on to be heard before the district court of Garfield county, and plaintiff in error objected to the introduction of any testimony on the ground that the order of the justice of the peace sustaining said motion to retax the cost and retaxing the same is not an appealable order, which motion the court sustained, and the appeal was dismissed, to which order of the court the plaintiff in error saved his exceptions. The action of the court in dismissing said appeal is the only question presented to this court for consideration.

Section 5044 of Wilson’s Revised Statutes of Oklahoma provides :

Un all cases, not otherwise specially provided for by law, either party may appeal from the final judgment of any justice of the peace to the district court of the county where the judgment was rendered.”

Section 5053 of said statutes is as follows:

LAn appeal may be taken from the final judgment of a justice of the peace in any case, except in cases hereinafter stated, in which no appeal shall be allowed: First, on judgments rendered on confession. Second, in jury trials, where neither party claims in his bill of particulars a sum exceeding twenty dollars.”

*683 Under the provisions of these sections of the statute, an appeal may be taken by the defeated party from the final judgment in any action before a justice of the peace except judgments rendered on confession, or in actions where the amount claimed in the bill of particulars is a sum not exceeding $20.

Section 5046 of Wilson’s Rev. & Ann. St. 1903 provides that an appeal taken under section 5044, supra, may be perfected upon the filing and approval of an appeal bond, and that upon such appeal a trial de novo shall be had. It is the contention of plaintiff in error that the order of the justice- of the peace sustaining his motion to retax costs and retaxing the same is a final judgment from which an appeal may be taken as provided in section 5044 et sequentia; and, having filed his appeal bond, contends that he is entitled to a trial de novo on his appeal in the district court.

No brief has been filed by the defendant in error, but the record discloses that the trial court did not regard said order as a “final judgment” from which an appeal could be taken as provided by said section 5044. The Code of Civil Procedure, of which said sections form a part, was adopted by the territory of Oklahoma from the state of Kansas, and said section is in the exact language of the section of the Kansas statute upon the same question. Mr. Justice Valentine, in Roll, Thayer, Williams & Co. v. Murray, 35 Kan. 171, 10 Pac. 472, in discussing what judgments or orders of a justice of the peace are included in /final judgments,” as used in section 5044, said:

“It will be seen that an appeal can be taken only from a ‘final judgment,’ and the appeal can be taken only after the ‘judgment’ has been rendered, and only within ten days after the ‘judgment’ has been rendered, and the amount of the appeal bond must not in any case be ‘less than double the amount of the judgment and ■ costs.’ And when the case is taken to the district court on appeal, it ‘shall be tried de novo in the district court upon the original papers on which the case was tried before the justice, unless the appellate court, in furtherance of justice, allow amended pleadings to be made or new pleadings to be filed.’ (Justice's *684 Code, No. 122.) There is no provision in the statutes for taking an appeal from the order of a justice of the peace in any provisional remedy or in any ancillary proceeding, and no provision anywhere for retrying in the district court upon an appeal from a justice of the peace, any question that pertains only to some jjrovisional remedy or to some ancillary proceeding. The appeal is from a final judgment only, and from a judgment on the merits only, and the trial afterward to be had on the appeal is only upon the merits.”

It cannot 'be contended that the order of the justice of the peace in this case sustaining the motion to retax the costs and retaxing the same is a judgment upon tire merits of the case in which said motion was filed. Section 4732 of Wilson’s Revised Statutes of Oklahoma is as follows:

“A judgment rendered, or final order made, by a justice of the peace, or any other tribunal, board or officer exercising judicial functions, and inferior in jurisdiction to the district court, may be reversed, vacated or modified by the district court.”

Sections 5034, 5035, and 5036 of said statutes of Oklahoma provide that in all cases which shall be tried by a jury or before a justice of the peace, without a jury, either party shall have the right to except to the opinion of the justice upon any question of law arising during the trial of the cause, and that the justice shall allow and sign,- upon request from either party, a bill of exceptions containing such exceptions, and it is provided by said sections what said bill of exceptions shall contain.

Section 5113 of said statutes provides:

“The provisions of an act entitled An act to establish a Code of Civil Procedure,’ which are, in their nature, applicable to the jurisdiction and proceedings before justices, and in respect to which no special provision is made by statute, are applicable to proceedings before justices of the peace.”

It has been held by the Supreme Court of Kansas, from which state the territory of Oklahoma adopted this statute, that under sections 5034, 5035, 5036, and 5113, a judgment or final order of a justice of the peace may be reviewed by proceedings in error

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1908 OK 53, 95 P. 466, 20 Okla. 681, 1907 Okla. LEXIS 72, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/maggert-v-keele-okla-1908.