Mengel v. Mengel

138 N.W. 495, 157 Iowa 630
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedNovember 18, 1912
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 138 N.W. 495 (Mengel v. Mengel) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mengel v. Mengel, 138 N.W. 495, 157 Iowa 630 (iowa 1912).

Opinion

Deembr, J.-

— -This case has had a checkered career, and the record now before us is incomplete and difficult to understand. Wé are advised that there is now before us another, intermediate order in an original divorce case brought by plaintiff against her husband, George Mengel, which latter case has not as yet been tried, although it has been pending for many years, during which time there has been a prolonged controversy over many intermediate or collateral orders. One branch of the case reached us many years ago and was disposed of, so far as this court is concerned, by an opinion which will be found reported in 145 Iowa, 737. We are informed that that branch of the case is now pending on appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States, and doubtless should take judicial notice of that fact.

The matter now before us was ’ initiated by plaintiff filing in the district court on March 8, 1909, the following application:

Comes now Blanche Mengel by her attorney, E. M. Sharon, and asks the court to order the defendant to pay the clerk of this court the sum of five hundred dollars to be applied as- partial payment of the costs and attorney’s fees incurred in this cause, and in support of this applica[633]*633tion says: That this cause was commenced in March, 1907, and that she had retained E. M. Sharon of the firm of Sharon & Donegan as her attorney in the January proceeding. That the defendant has contested the case and sought to delay the termination thereof. That there have been twenty-eight different pleadings filed in this case in this court, and the trial of the plaintiff’s cause for separate maintenance and defendant’s cause to annul the marriage continued five times. Tha,t her attorney has been obliged to advance up to, the present date $32.70 for sheriff and clerks’ cost in this cause. That the defendant commenced an independent action to enjoin the judgment of the Supreme Court affirming the order of this court ordering the defendant to pay the plaintiff $50 per month for her support, pending the disposition of the cause. That there have been three applications for an injunction on said allowance in this court, which were successfully contested by her attorney. That three appeals have been taken to the Supreme Court of Iowa; that one of said appeals was dismissed at time required to file abstract. One was affirmed on motion of plaintiff, and one is still pending wherein plaintiff’s attorney has filed a brief and argument and an abstract of the record, the printing of which cost $21.80. That in all of these appeals there have been numerous motions, statements, affidavits, briefs, and arguments not printed, but which required much legal work. That defendant also notified plaintiff’s attorney to go to Des Moines at a hearing on the application to Judge Sherwin, of the Supreme Court, for an injunction to restrain the execution of the judgment for $575 of the allowance for support made by this court, and her said attorney has received no repayment of his expenses, and has filed a motion to dissolve the .injunction, with the answer of the plaintiff and affidavits of an officer or employee of the two banks in which it was alleged that plaintiff had funds; that such accounts were the accounts of Eelicia Neuter, the daughter of plaintiff. That it is necessary for plaintiff to have funds to apply as part payment for the services of her attorney and the money expended in costs paid and payable before proceeding further in its prosecution .and defense. That $50 is all the money hereto paid said E. M. Sharon on account of his services and disbursement in this cause, and the plaintiff [634]*634lias no means of her own with which to pay him except as she obtains the same from her husband, who is liable for the same. That the appeal from the order allowing support money is an appeal from an interlocutory order of this court, and this court has jurisdiction to make the allowance herein asked for. Blanche Mengel, by E. M. Sharon, her attorney.

This application was duly verified by plaintiffs attorney.

On March 30, 1911, plaintiff also filed the following motion:

Comes now the plaintiff and moves the court for an order compelling the defendant to pay the clerk of this court $2,000 for attorney’s fee and costs for expenses made necessary by litigation caused by the defendant and to enable the plaintiff to prosecute her said action in the court and the Supreme Court of the United States, and submits in aid of this motion affidavit and application filed herein about March 8, 1909, and affidavits submitted herein. Sharon & Higgins, Attorneys for Plaintiff.

With this was filed an affidavit by plaintiff’s counsel, to which we shall hereinafter refer. Plaintiff also filed her own affidavit, to which reference will subsequently be made. We shall presently make such reference to the original affidavit as the record will warrant.

On April 5, 1911, defendant was served with the following notice:

State of Iowa, Scott County.
Notice of Hearing on Application for Allowance of Suit Money. Blanche Mengel, Plaintiff, v. George Mengel, Defendant. In the District Court of Said County. To the Above named Defendant: You are hereby notified that there is filed in the office of the clerk of the district court, in and for said county of Scott, state of Iowa, the application of the above named plaintiff, asking against you the allowance of $2,000 for suit money and attorney’s fees in the above-entitled cause, and that unless you appear and make defense thereto before Judge House, at the courthouse [635]*635in Davenport, in said county, on the 17th day of April, 1911, an allowance will be entered against you, and judgment rendered thereon.
Sharon & Higgins, Attorneys for Plaintiff.

On May 3, 1911, a hearing was had on the second of the foregoing applications in point of time at the Scott county courthouse, and we find that the following record was made thereat: Testimony was introduced tending to show an agreement between counsel for the postponement of the hearing from the time fixed in the notice until May 3, 1911. On the part of defendant, one George Scott testified that he was an attorney of record for said’ defendant, and that he agreed.to May 3d as the date for the hearing; but it is claimed that his appearance in the case was special, and that his agreement was not binding on defendant. . As he was an attorney of record for the defendant, we think his agreement was binding. But, however this may be, the transcript to which we have been compelled to resort shows affirmatively that defendant appeared in person on the morning of May 3d, and the court ordered that the matter be taken up at 1 p. m. of said day. At that time plaintiff by her attorney introduced the following from the record in the original case: The appearance docket and fee book showing the filings in the original case of Mengel v. Mengel, and in a case entitled George Mengel v. Blanche Mengel and Louis Eckhardt, the issuance of a writ of attachment and a levy thereun•der, and another case of the same title as the last one above mentioned being an action on injunction bond, and, as “we understand it, the pages of an appearance docket showing the filings in another case of the same title. The original application for suit money was also introduced, and also the application filed March 8, 1909, which we have heretofore set out in extenso.

In support of the motion for allowance of suit money [636]

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138 N.W. 495, 157 Iowa 630, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mengel-v-mengel-iowa-1912.