Nichols & Shepard Co. v. Horstad

130 N.W. 776, 27 S.D. 262, 1911 S.D. LEXIS 32
CourtSouth Dakota Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 22, 1911
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 130 N.W. 776 (Nichols & Shepard Co. v. Horstad) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering South Dakota Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Nichols & Shepard Co. v. Horstad, 130 N.W. 776, 27 S.D. 262, 1911 S.D. LEXIS 32 (S.D. 1911).

Opinion

WHITING, J.

This action was brought in -the circuit court to recover the amount claimed by -plaintiff to be due from the defendants upon a certain appeal bond given in an action in which this plaintiff was plaintiff and'the defendants Horstad and Smith were the defendants, and in which action the said defendants appealed to this court, giving upon such appeal a bond with the defendants Addison and Sheldon as sureties thereon. The said judgment having -been affirmed upon appeal, this action was brought upon such bond. The plaintiff -claims to recover upon such bond, not -only the judgment for costs upon such appeal to this court, but also the judgment rendered in the circuit court -in [264]*264such former action; it being the claim of plaintiffs that the bond sued upon is both a cost bond upon appeal and a supersedeas or stay bond. The defendants, before answering, asked the court to require plaintiff to separate its alleged claim into two separate causes of action; the one covering the claim for costs upon appeal, and the other the claim for amount of the judgment appealed from. The court required this separation of causes of action, and the plaintiff, excepting thereto, complied with the order and so amended -the complaint as to set up two separate causes of action. The defendants, answering the complaint, alleged the bond to be a mere cost bond, and, by way of counterclaim, set up facts purporting to show that the bond as given by them, regardless of its wording, was given and received by plaintiff as a cost bond only, and not as a supersedeas or stay bond. The defendants also pleaded certain other matters by way of 'counterclaim, but we find it unnecessary to consider them because, if the court was right in its rulings and instructions concerning the first counterclaim interposed, the verdict and judgment were proper, regardless of any questions arising on any other counterclaim. We think that the trial court committed ik» error in requiring the plaintiff to separate the causes of action. It separated that part of the bond securing costs upon appeal from that part purporting to secure the payment of the circuit court judgment, thus enabling the defendants to more clearly raise the defense of payment of the costs upon appeal. A prayer for reformation of the bond was a part of defendant’s answer. This prayer was disregarded upon the trial and for good reason, as no grounds whatever for reformation were shown; there being nothing to show but that defendants knew the contents of the instrument signed, and were merely claiming that they understood that it was in legal effect but a cost bond.

The judgment from which the former appeal was taken was a judgment for something over $4,000, and the bond upon appeal was in every respect in the ordinary form of a bond given to secure the costs on appeal and to secure the payment of the judgment appealed from. The first part of the bond, being the [265]*265part providing for the payment of costs of appeal, was limited in amount to $250, but there was no limitation whatever upon the amount of the supersedeas bond. In the justification attached to such bond the sureties justified in the sum of $250. There is nothing else in the wording of the bond or justification attached thereto to indicate any intent upon the part of the defendants to limit their liability merely to the $250. The defendants alleged the payment in full of the. judgment for costs upon appeal as well as 'the judgment for costs in the circuit court, and upon the trial this allegation was fully sustained, so that, under the instructions of the court, if the jury found that the bond in question should be held to secure only the costs upon appeal, their verdict was necessarily in favor of defendants, while, if they found against the defendants on this proposition but in favor of them on all the other counterclaims, a judgment for a considerable amount would necessarily have been rendered in favor of plaintiff. The verdict as rendered was for the defendants, and thus supported the claim that the bond in question should, under the facts proven, be held to be but a bond for costs upon appeal.

Respondents, defendants below, contend that the bond in question was upon its face but a cost bond, and therefore the ver-dict was right, regardless of whether they established their counterclaim to the effect that, regardless of its wording, the bond was given and received as only a cost bond. They’say “that the intention of the Legislature in providing what the character of a supersedeas bond should be, was that unless the bond was made substantially as required including the justification that the execution was not stayed thereby.” It will be seen from the above that respondents construe that part of section 458, Rev. Code Civ. Proc. 1905, reading as follows: “An undertaking upon appeal shall be of no effect unless it is accompanied by the affidavit of the sureties, in which each surety shall state that he is worth a certain sum mentioned in such affidavit * * * and which sum so sworn to by such sureties 'shall, in the aggregate, be double the amount specified in said undertaking”. — as rendering the undertaking a nullity as a statutory undertaking where there is not [266]*266such an affidavit of justification attached thereto. In other words, the respondents contend that the bond in question is to be construed at one and -the same time as a good statutory bond for the purposes of appeal only, and a common-law bond for purposes of staying execution. To reach this conclusion, they would have the justification refer only to that part of the undertaking providing for payment of costs upon appeal. There is absolutely no reference in the' justification to any particular part of the bond to which it is intended to relate, and the only basis for respondents’ contention is the fact that the amount named in the justification happens to coincide with the amount of the appeal bond, and not with the amount of the judgment appealed from. We are inclined to the opinion that the instrument before us must be treated either as a statutory bond for all purposes or for none. In the case of Tolerton & Stetson Co. v. Casperson, 7 S. D. 206, 63 N. W. 908, this court said that an undertaking without a justification fully complying with section 458, supra, “is clearly insufficient, and must be disregarded.” That was a case in which the respondents upon appeal were .relying upon that section and asking for the dismissal of the appeal, and it is certainly clear that as against a respondent such an undertaking is insufficient because he has a right to have the sureties. justify; it being the means provided through which he can satisfy himself as to the value of the security offered him. There is nothing, however, preventing a respondent from waiving this provision and accepting an undertaking without any justification whatsoever, and such an undertaking is in every sense a statutory undertaking, if the conditions in the body of the undertaking conform to the statute. Our statute, so far as the clause above quoted is concerned, is the same as part of section 355 of the practice act of California (St. 1851, c. 5) as amended in 1854 (St. 1854, c. 54). The Supreme Court of California, in 1869, construing said clause of section 355 in the case of Murdock v. Brooks, 38 Cal. 596, said: “It seems to be settled that the failure of the sureties to justify, if such was the case, constitutes no defense. This rule is deduced from the proposition, which no one disputes, that a [267]*267party may waive a compliance with statutory conditions which are merely directory and intended solely for his benefit.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
130 N.W. 776, 27 S.D. 262, 1911 S.D. LEXIS 32, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/nichols-shepard-co-v-horstad-sd-1911.