Matthews & Co. v. Progress Distilling Co.

62 S.E. 924, 108 Va. 777, 1908 Va. LEXIS 96
CourtSupreme Court of Virginia
DecidedNovember 19, 1908
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 62 S.E. 924 (Matthews & Co. v. Progress Distilling Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Virginia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Matthews & Co. v. Progress Distilling Co., 62 S.E. 924, 108 Va. 777, 1908 Va. LEXIS 96 (Va. 1908).

Opinion

Keith, P.,

delivered the opinion of the court.

A hill was filed in the Circuit Court of Rockingham county by Rosenheim & Son, the Progress Distilling Company, and others, suing on behalf of themselves and all other lien creditors of P. J. Lamb, in order to ascertain the liens against the defendant, the order of their priority, and to subject his property to their payment. There was a reference to a commissioner, who made his report, to which certain exceptions were filed, one of which assigned as error, that “more than one year’s rent, as against the other judgment creditors of Lamb, was allowed in favor of his landlord, O. A. Sprinkel.” The court sustained this exception, the case was brought here on appeal, and a decree was rendered at the November term, 1904, in which the decree of the circuit court was reversed and annulled; — “and this court proceeding to pronounce such decree as the said circuit court ought to have pronounced, it further adjudged, ordered and decreed that the second exception filed by the complainants in said circuit court to the report of Commissioner Bryant, returned and filed in this cause on the 16th day of March, 1904, be overruled, and the said report be and the same is hereby confirmed.” Sprinkel v. Rosenheim & Son, 103 Va. 185, 48 S. E. 883. The cause was remanded for further proceedings in the circuit court not in conflict with the written opinion of this court.

It will be observed that the decree appealed from was rendered on the 8th of June, 1904. The decree of this court was rendered on the 29th day of November, 1904, and at the June term, 1906, of the Circuit Court of Rockingham county, the Progress Distilling Company and Rosskam, Gerstley & Co. filed their petition, in which they show that certain debts established by the report of the commissioner of date March 16, 1904, were incorrectly stated, in this, that a debt by judgment [779]*779due to Matthews & Co', was reported in the fifth class, and petitioners’ judgments were reported, respectively, as in classes six and seven; while, if these judgments had been correctly reported, the debt of Matthews & Co. would have been subordinated to the liens of the,petitioners.

The mistake occurred in this way: All three judgments were rendered at the October term, 1902, of the Circuit Court of Rockingham county. They were rendered in accordance with the statute which authorizes a judgment against a defendant after fifteen days’ notice. The fifteen days’ notice in the case of Rosskam, Gerstley & Co. expired on the 13th day of October, 1902, and judgment was rendered thereon as of that date; that of the Progress Distilling Company matured on the 17th day of October, 1902, and judgment was rendered as of that date. In the case of Matthews & Co., the fifteen days’ notice it seems did not expire until October 25th, and judgment was rendered thereon as of that date. In entering these judgments on the judgment docket, in the column under the head of “Date of Judgment,” the clerk should have noted that the judgment was not rendered until the 25th day of October, but instead he simply entered under that heading that it was rendered at the October term, 1902. When he came to record the judgments of petitioners, however, he properly indicated the date at which their judgments were rendered during the term. So that, when the master commissioner examined the judgment docket to ascertain what judgments there were against' Lamb and the order of their priority, finding the Matthews judgment entered upon the docket as of the October term, 1902, without giving the date of its rendition, he assumed that it related back to the first day of that term, and accordingly gave it priority.

Without going further into the petition, it suffices to say that leave was given the petitioners to file their petition, and that such proceedings thereon were had that on the 10th day of April, 1907, a decree was rendered granting the relief prayed for, and from that decree an appeal was allowed by this court.

[780]*780By section 3435 of the Code, it is provided, that “no hill of review shall he allowed to a final decree, unless it he exhibited within one year next after such decree, except that an infant or insane person may exhibit the same within one year after the removal of his or her disability.”

Hone of the parties interested in this proceeding are within the excepted classes, and the decree of the circuit court which was appealed from, and the decree of this court which disposed of that appeal, were both entered more than one year before the petition in this case was filed. ■

Every decision of this court, whether it be upon an interlocutory or a final decree, is in its nature final; except possibly where this court disposes of only a part of the case at one term and reserves it for further and final action at another.” Gampbell’s Ex’ors v. Campbell’s Ex’or, 22 Gratt. 649.

That case is of the highest authority. In it Judge Moncure, speaking for the whole court, reviews all the authorities bearing upon the subject. It has since been cited in cases almost without number, and always with approval. At p. 671, the opinion says, in part: “The decree of this court is certainly not interlocutory, and is none the less final because it is upon an appeal from an interlocutory decree of the court below. The latter decree does not impart its interlocutory nature to the decree of this court which affirms or reverses it in whole or in part, or adjudicates the principles of the cause. The case made for the court of appeals by an appeal from a decree of the court below, whether final or interlocutory, is, as to the court of appeals, a complete, case in itself, and the decree of that coiirt therein is final and conclusive between the parties, as well upon that court itself as upon the court below; and the court of appeals can do nothing more in the course of the same litigation until a new and different appeal is brought up to it from some decree of the court below, rendered in the cause upon subsequent proceedings in that court; and then the court of appeals can only review and revise that decree without interfering with its own former [781]*781decree. The two appeals are different and independent cases in this court. The decision of this court is not only final in regard to the decree appealed from, but also in regard to all the prior orders and decrees in the case between the appellants and appellees.”

From which it appears that the interlocutory character of the decree appealed from does not impart that quality to the decree of this court, but that, on the contrary, all the decrees of this court being final in their nature, the quality 'of finality is imparted to the decree appealed from, whether that decree was final or interlocutory. Lore v. Ash, 89 Va. 277, 15 S. E. 549; Hawthorne v. Beckwith, 89 Va. 786, 17 S. E. 241; Rosenbaum v. Seddon, 94 Va. 575, 27 S. E. 425.

It is contended by appellees that the limitation of section 3435 did not begin to run until the mistake which had been committed to their prejudice was discovered.

In Bickle v. Chrisman's Adm’x, 76 Va.

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Bluebook (online)
62 S.E. 924, 108 Va. 777, 1908 Va. LEXIS 96, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/matthews-co-v-progress-distilling-co-va-1908.