Moss v. Robertson

77 N.W. 403, 56 Neb. 774, 1898 Neb. LEXIS 323
CourtNebraska Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 8, 1898
DocketNo. 8429
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 77 N.W. 403 (Moss v. Robertson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Nebraska Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Moss v. Robertson, 77 N.W. 403, 56 Neb. 774, 1898 Neb. LEXIS 323 (Neb. 1898).

Opinion

Harrison, C. J.

On May 22,1890, Belle Robertson and J. H; Robertson, her husband, executed and delivered to Janies M. Storm a mortgage on two lots in the town of Du Bois to secure the payment of an indebtedness of $641.38, which was duly recorded, and on March 14, of the succeeding year, sold and conveyed the premises to Melissa E. Groom, the grantee assuming and agreeing to pay the mortgage debt. To secure the payment of a part of the purchase price Melissa E. Groom executed and delivered to her grantor a mortgage on the premises in the sum of $445. The condition of the mortgage to James M. Storms in regard to payment of the debt was not performed, and he instituted an action of foreclosure, to which, with others, Belle Robertson, J. IT. Robertson, Melissa E. Groom and her husband were made parties. The service on the Robertsons and some others of defendants was [776]*776by publication. In the petition appeared the following statement: “The defendants Belle Robertson and J. H. Robertson claim to have an interest in said premises by virtue of a mortgage thereon from Melissa E. Groom and Isaac E. Groom, dated March 27, 1891, and recorded in book 18 of mortgages on page 231 of the records of Pawnee county, Nebraska, the amount of which interest is unknown to the plaintiff, but the lien thereof is subsequent and secondary to that of the plaintiff’s mortgage.” There was no appearance by the Robertsons. Their default was entered, and in due course of the proceedings in the suit a decree was rendered and sale ordered. The property was sold under the order of sale April 17, 1893, and James M. Storm, the mortgagee and plaintiff in the foreclosure suit, was the purchaser, the amount paid being $1,015, of which, after satisfaction of the decree, there remained a surplus of $252.20. After the decree, but prior to the sale to satisfy it, the property was sold and conveyed by Mrs. Groom and husband to Randolph Moss, the plaintiff in error. At or about the time of confirmation of the sale Randolph Moss appeared and moved the court that he be made a party to the action and receive the surplus of the proceeds of the sale. In the decree it had been ordered: “An order of sale shall be issued to the sheriff of Pawnee county commanding him to sell the above described real estate as upon execution, and bring the proceeds thereof into court to be applied in satisfaction of the sum of $670.80 found' due.” The sum set forth in the decree was the amount adjudged to be due of the debt secured by the mortgage to the plaintiff in the action of foreclosure. The record discloses, or it is a finding of the trial judge in the decree of which a reversal is now sought, that the proceeds of the sale were by the sheriff paid into court, or to its clerk. The court did not order the surplus paid to the plaintiff in error on his motion, but the clerk paid it to him. Subsequent to all the occurrences to which we have alluded Belle Robertson made an application [777]*777to have the decree of foreclosure opened and to be let in to defend under the provisions of section 82 of the Code of Civil Procedure, relative to opening decrees by parties against whom the service was constructive or by publication, which' was- sustained, and she filed an answer and cross-bill, in which she asked the foreclosure of the mortgage given by Melissa E. Groom and husband at the time of the purchase from the cross-petitioner of the property involved in the suit, and that she be adjudged entitled to receive and apply on’ the mortgage debt the surplus of the proceeds of the sale made under the decree of foreclosure, of the prior mortgage. The portion of the relief for which she prayed to which we have last referred was granted her, and it is of the proceedings which led up to the decree and also of such adjudication that a review is now sought in this court.

The jurisdiction of this court is questioned by defend-, ant in error, and this objection had best be examined first. The plaintiff in error filed a petition in error, a transcript of the entry of the judgment, and the bill of exceptions. Pursuant to leave obtained on motion for the purpose there was subsequently filed an amended transcript or amendments to the transcript. The contention for plaintiff in error is that the filings did not fulfill the requirements of section 586 of the Code of Civil Procedure, wherein it is provided that “the plaintiff in error shall file with his petition a transcript of the proceedings containing the final judgment or order sought to be reversed, vacated, or modified;” that this contemplated the filing with the petition in error of a complete transcript of all the proceedings necessary to the presentation of the alleged errors to the appellate court; and further, inasmuch as error proceedings must be commenced .within one year after the rendition of the judgment sought to be vacated (see Code of Civil Procedure, sec. 592), and the amendments to the transcript herein were not within a year after the judgment was entered, the supreme court did not acquire jurisdic[778]*778tion. An examination of the decisions of this court which bear on this point of discussion satisfies us that-when a transcript, inclusive of the judgment or final order, which transcript may be incomplete,—certainly not purposely or negligently so,—is filed with a petition in eiTor within a year after the rendition of the judgment or final order, the reversal of which is the object of the proceedings, jurisdiction of the matter attaches, and on application the appellate court may, within its discretion, allow an amended transcript, or amendments -to the transcript, to be filed of a date or time without or beyond the said year. This being determined the argument on this point fails.

For plaintiff in error there was filed in the district court before decree a motion that the cross-petitioner, being a non-resident, be required to give security for costs. The application to open the judgment of foreclosure of the prior mortgage was, as we have before stated, under the provisions of section 82 of the Code of Civil Procedure, in which appears the following language in regard to costs: The applicant shall “pay all costs, if the court require them to be paid.” It is provided generally in respect to security for costs that “in all cases in which the plaintiff is a non-resident of the county in which the action is to be brought, before commencing such action, the plaintiff must furnish sufficient surety for costs” (Code of Civil Procedure, sec. 612); and “an action in which security for costs is required by the last section, and has not been given, shall be dismissed on motion and notice by the defendant at any proper time before judgment, unless in a reasonable time to be allowed by the court, such- security for costs be given” (Code of Civil Procedure, sec. 613). Statutes in regard to costs may not be extended beyond the letter, but are to be construed strictly. (Stanton County v. Madison County, 10 Neb. 308.) The cross-petitioner was not within the provisions of section 612 of the Code of Civil Procedure relative to security for costs; and that security [779]*779should be given or required was not within the letter of section 82. If any inherent right was in the court to require such security, it was a matter of discretion; and without abuse of its judgment—and there was none— its ruling on the motion was not erroneous.

The only further question to be determined is whether the court erred in its decree by which it ordered that the cross-petitioner receive the surplus of the proceeds of the sale under the prior mortgage, which sale had been perfected and confirmed.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
77 N.W. 403, 56 Neb. 774, 1898 Neb. LEXIS 323, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/moss-v-robertson-neb-1898.