Miller v. Kramer

134 N.W. 538, 154 Iowa 523
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedFebruary 10, 1912
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 134 N.W. 538 (Miller v. Kramer) 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
Miller v. Kramer, 134 N.W. 538, 154 Iowa 523 (iowa 1912).

Opinion

Per Curiam.

When the case was first before us, nearly every question of law was disposed of, and reference to the opinion there filed will disclose the issues in the main case. The law thus announced is controlling on this appeal, no matter whether right or wrong. After remand to the district court, defendants filed a substituted answer; but this did not in any manner change the issues or avoid the ruling made on the former appeal. Plaintiff filed a reply to this substituted answer, in which he averred:

And therein prayed that the court partition the said realty between the plaintiff and the defendants therein; that a demurrer of the defendants therein was sustained by the court to the said petition, and thereupon the plaintiff therein filed an amended and substituted petition in which he claimed that he had purchased the tract of realty described in ‘Exhibit A’ thereto, and asked for a decree of specific performance against the defendants of the instrument which is set out in his answer in this ease as ‘Exhibit D,’ to which the defendants filed a demurrer which was sustained by the court, and, upon the plaintiff standing [525]*525•upon, liis pleadings a final entry, judgment and decree by the court was made upon the record; that the plaintiffs herein hereby refer to the original petition in equity for partition, and. the amended and substituted petition therein, asking for specific performance, and to Exhibit A thereof, and the record entries of the court entered upon the said pleadings are hereby referred to in support of this plea of election, a prior adjudication, estoppel of record, and abandonment by defendant of any right to maintain an application under section 2028 and section 2029 .of the Code of Iowa and Supplement of 1907 to the Code; . . . that, by the filing and maintaining of the said suit and the filing of the several petitions therein, he elected, asserted, and claimed the right of way over and across the tract of realty owned by the plaintiffs in this action by virtue of Exhibit D [this Exhibit D is the contract between plaintiff, Gus Miller, and the defendant Kramer, referred to in 148 Iowa under the same designation] attached to his answer herein; that he is now es-topped of record by his said institution of the said proceedings and by the adjudication of this court .therein from seeking to again litigate the said matters in this action.

It is claimed for the pleading that it showed an election on the part of defendant Kramer to rely upon a contract, and that he is estopped by the judgment in the partition proceedings from further prosecuting this proceeding. A sufficient answer to this contention, we think, is that the proceedings to establish the road were pending when the partition suit was brought. The proceedings to establish the road were never abandoned, but were delayed because of the temporary injunction issued in this ease. If there was any election at all, it was to establish the way over the land, for this was the first proceeding begun, and, if a defense anywhere, it might have been pleaded as such to the partition suit; but this was not done. Moreover, we do not think the judgment in the partition suit is a bar to this action. Defendant may have no right of partition or to enforce bis contract with plaintiff, and yet be entitled to the road, and, if he owned the land and was entitled to [526]*526use it, plaintiff had no right to enjoin the use thereof by defendant. We do not think this reply tendered any valid defense to defendant’s answer and cross-petition.

The only questions touching the merits, in view of the law announced on the former appeal, are these: First. Has the defendant, or had he at the beginning of this action, a public or private way to his land? Second. Is the proposed road on the division line or immediately adjacent thereto?

The trial court answered the first of these questions in the negative and the second in the affirmative, and, after considering all the testimony, we think its conclusions are correct. The testimony .amply sustains both findings and the decree dismissing plaintiffs’ petition in the main case, unless it be for some other proposition argued.

1. Appeal: effect of reveral: injunction. The principal point here relied upon is that the permanent injunction decreed and issued in the original case, which was appealed to this court, was not disturbed for the reason that no appeal was taken therefrom, and that after remand upon the reversaq pelle nothing could be done by the trial court to disturb that decree. [Reference to the opinion on the first appeal will "show that a decree of permanent injunction was issued in that case because of defendant’s election to istand upon his answer to Which a demurrer had been sustained. The effect of the ruling here holding that the demurrer should have been overruled was to reinstate the answer and annul the decree of permanent injunction. The procedendo which issued after the reversal and which was filed in the court below recited that: “Whereas, the Supreme Court of said state being lately certified of the record and proceedings in a certain cause which was in said district court, wherein Gus J. Miller et al. were plaintiffs, and Henry Kramer, appellant, defendant, wherein there was an appeal from the order and judgment rendered in the district court to the Supreme Court, and the said [527]*527court having duly examined the record and proceedings aforesaid in the premises, at Des Moines, in said state, on the 16th day of June, 3910, did reverse the judgment aforesaid, as rendered in the court below, and order further proceedings to be had in said court not inconsistent with the opinion of the Supreme Court: Therefore you are hereby commanded that, with the speed which of right and according to law you may, you proceed in the manner required by law in harmony with the opinion in this court, anything in the record or proceedings aforesaid heretofore certified to the contrary notwithstanding.” The effect of this w*as to set aside the entire decree heretofore entered, and the entire case was retried upon proper issues in harmony with the opinion of this court. There is manifestly nothing in the claim that the permanent injunction stands. Cases in support of so plain ,a proposition need not be cited.

2. Same: burden harmless ruling. Again, appellants contend that the trial court was in error in casting the hunden of proof upon them to establish the facts in issue. The case was tried as in equity, and is triable de Tiovo here. We do not know that the court below put the burden upon plaintiffs; but, if it did, there was no error if, upon the whole record, the judgment is correct. The case comes to us anew, and we think the trial court was correct in its findings of facts, no matter where the burden of proof.

3. Injunction: parties. Again it is contended that the case should be reversed because defendant Kramer did not, after the reversal and remand, bring in the necessary parties to a complete settlement and adjudication of the rights of all who were interested. The exact point here is, as we understand it, that said defendant should have filed a cross-petition against other persons who it is claimed owned land over which he, defendant, had or was entitled to a private or public way, served notice upon [528]*528them, 'and brought them into court in order that said way might be established over their land; thus avoiding the necessity of passing over the plaintiffs’ land. There is no merit in this contention.

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Bluebook (online)
134 N.W. 538, 154 Iowa 523, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/miller-v-kramer-iowa-1912.