Mountain Home Lumber Co. v. Swartwout

197 P. 1027, 33 Idaho 737, 1921 Ida. LEXIS 53
CourtIdaho Supreme Court
DecidedMay 2, 1921
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 197 P. 1027 (Mountain Home Lumber Co. v. Swartwout) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Idaho Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mountain Home Lumber Co. v. Swartwout, 197 P. 1027, 33 Idaho 737, 1921 Ida. LEXIS 53 (Idaho 1921).

Opinion

LEE, J.

The Mountain Home Lumber Company, Ltd., a corporation, respondent herein, hereafter referred to as the lumber company, brought an action against appellant D. R. Swartwout, the two Meseroles and Smith, to quiet title to certain lands. In that action appellant Swartwout, as one of the defendants, and the Meseroles and Smith, as the other, cross-complained, and each severally asked to have title quieted in themselves. In that action the court found for the Meseroles and Smith, and quieted title in them. From that judgment the lumber company appealed, and Swartwout cross-appealed. This court reversed that judgment and directed the lower court to quiet title in.Swartwout, appellant in this action. (Mountain Home L. Co. v. Swartwout, 30 Ida. 559, 166 Pac. 271.)

The remittitur directed the court below to make findings, conclusions and judgment, quieting title to said premises in appellant Swartwout, and awarded him costs on appeal in the sum of $80.60. This remittitur was filed with the clerk of the court below on October 27, 1917, and on November 1st following appellant Swartwout filed therein his memorandum of costs incurred in the trial of the action below, in the sum of $51.65, and served the same upon the lumber [740]*740company, which made no objection at the time. The clerk of the lower conrt docketed judgment for $80.60, costs awarded on appeal by this court, and $51.65 costs claimed in the original action, making a total money judgment of $132.25; the time of docketing this judgment does not appear.

On November 27th following, the lower court made findings, conclusion and judgment quieting title to said premises in appellant Swartwout, as directed by this court, and as a part of said judgment entered a money judgment for said costs for $132.25. The lumber company moved to strike these items of cost from this judgment, for the reason that the memorandum for the item of costs incurred in the first triál had been prematurely filed, and, secondly, for the reason that the order for costs allowed by this court on said appeal was illegal and void, and had been illegally and improperly entered. This motion was sustained by the lower court, and both items of cost were stricken from s,aid judgment. From this order striking this judgment for costs this appeal is taken by Swartwout, and presents two questions for determination, the first one being as to whether a trial court can strike from a judgment entered on a mandate from this court, costs on appeal, and, secondly, whether the memorandum of costs claimed in the lower court was prematurely filed.

C. S., sec. 7219, provides .that whenever costs are awarded to a party by an appellate court, if he claims such costs he must tax the same before the clerk of the supreme court. This section and rules 39 and 40 of this court provide the manner of taxing costs allowed on appeal. These costs on appeal were taxed in accordance with this statute and the rules of this court, and were a part of its judgment, as certified to the lower court. It would therefore seem to be a matter of supererogation to say that the lower court is without authority to modify the judgment of this court. The mandate of the reviewing court is binding upon the lower court, and must be strictly followed. Where the ap[741]*741pállate court remands a cause with directions to enter judgment for one of the parties, the judgment .of the appellate court is a final judgment in the cause, and the entry thereof in the lower court is a purely ministerial act. (2 R. C. L., p. 289, sec. 244; Fortenberry v. Frazier, 5 Ark. 200, 39 Am. Dec. 373; Cowdery v. London & San Francisco Bank, 139 Cal. 298, 96 Am. St. 115, 73 Pac. 196; Tourville v. Wabash R. Co., 148 Mo. 614, 71 Am. St. 650, 50 S. W. 300; Durham v. Eno Cotton Mills, 144 N. C. 705, 57 S. E. 465, 11 L. R. A., N. S., 1163; Barbour v. Tompkins, 58 W. Va. 572, 52 S. E. 707, 3 L. R. A., N. S., 715.)

A trial court has no authority to enter any judgment or order not in conformity with the order of the" appellate court. That order is conclusive on the parties, and no judgment or order different from or in addition to that directed by it can have any effect. Where the mandate of an appellate court directs a specific judgment to be entered, the tribunal to which such mandate is directed must yield obedience thereto. No modification of the judgment so directed can be made by the trial court, nor can any provision be ingrafted on or taken from it. The reason for this rule is obvious. When a particular judgment is directed by an appellate court, the lower court is not acting of its own motion, but in obedience to the order of its superior. What that superior says it shall do, it must do, and that alone. Public interest requires that there shall be an end to litigation,. and when a given cause has received the consideration of a reviewing court, has had its merits determined, and has been remanded with specific directions, the court to which such mandate is directed has no power to do anything but to obey; otherwise litigation would never be ended, and the reviewing tribunal would be shorn of that authority over inferior tribunals with which it is invested by fundamental law. (2 R. C. L., p. 289, sec. 244; Galbreath v. Wallrich, 48 Colo. 127, 139 Am. St. 263, 109 Pac. 417.)

[742]*742C. S., sec. 7172 (R. C., see. 4826), provides that when judgment is rendered upon an appeal, it must he certified by the clerk of the supreme court to the clerk with whom the judgment-roll is filed; the clerk must attach the certificate to the judgment-roll and enter a minute of the judgment of the supreme court upon the docket against the original entry. This was originally section 358. of the California Practice Act, being now section 958 of the California Code of Civil Procedure, and was first construed in Marysville v. Buchanan, 3 Cal. 212, wherein that court says that' the remittitur from the appellate court is transmitted to the clerk of the court below, and by him attached to the judgment-roll, • and a minute of the judgment of the appellate court is entered on the docket against the original entry. If the judgment of the appellate court orders a new trial, the clerk of the district court will proceed to place the cause on the calendar; if it awards costs, he will, on the application of the party in whose favor it is given, issue execution on the same. In either ease he acts not by authority of the district court, but of this court, and that court has no authority to prevent immediate execution of the judgment; it being the judgment of the appellate court, is final.

In McMillan v. Richards, 12 Cal. 467, the court says that where the supreme court reverses a judgment of the district court and directs the entry of a final judgment, such judgment may be entered by the clerk of the district court in vacation, it being in substance and effect a final disposition of the whole subject matter by the appellate court. The lower court performs a specific ministerial duty in registering the decree ordered and directed by the appellate court, and it is just as binding as if entered in the supreme court itself.

McMann v. Superior Court, 74 Cal. 106, 15 Pac. 448, holds that the statute of limitations on a judgment for costs awarded by an appellate court commences to run from the, entry thereof on the docket.

[743]*743Respondent lumber company contends that because in Mountain Home L. Co. v. Swartwout et al., supra,

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Bluebook (online)
197 P. 1027, 33 Idaho 737, 1921 Ida. LEXIS 53, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mountain-home-lumber-co-v-swartwout-idaho-1921.