Pioneer Canal Co. v. Akin

192 P. 680, 27 Wyo. 88, 1920 Wyo. LEXIS 28
CourtWyoming Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 4, 1920
DocketNo. 781
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 192 P. 680 (Pioneer Canal Co. v. Akin) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wyoming Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pioneer Canal Co. v. Akin, 192 P. 680, 27 Wyo. 88, 1920 Wyo. LEXIS 28 (Wyo. 1920).

Opinions

BlydenbuRGH, Justice.

Tbis is a case to establish tbe several priorities of right to the use of the waters of the Big Laramie River and its tributaries. It was instituted as provided by statute by the filing with the State Board of Control of their claims of right by the individuals and such contests by others against such individual claims as were filed under the statutory provisions, and appeals from the order of the State Board of Control to the District Court as permitted by Section 779, Wyoming Compiled Statutes, 1910; all such appeals were consolidated in the District Court, and judgment was rendered December 27, 1912. On January 6, 1913, an order was entered overruling the several motions for new trial that had been filed, including motions of the plaintiffs in error. Six of the parties to the judgment filed their separate petitions in error in this court on January 3, 1914, together with praecipes for summons in error, and on the same day a summons in error naming 188 defendants in error was issued by the clerk of this court and made returnable on or before August 1, 1914. Although each of the separate petitions in error of the plaintiffs in error is in the same language, alleging error in overruling their respective motions for new trial, an examination of the said motions reveals the fact that they are different in each ease, containing different grounds against in many respects different parties, although brought to this court in one case as they should be. This summons in error was returned and filed in this court on August 1, 1914, showing service or acceptance of service on or on behalf of 115 of the defendants in error named, and that 73 were not served on account of not being found.

On September 23, 1914, the attorney for the plaintiffs in error filed in this court a praecipe for alias summonses in error to be served upon nine of the unserved defendants 'in error, to b'e directed respectively to the sheriffs of the [98]*98counties of Albany, Carbon, Fremont, Laramie, Platte, and Uinta; which alias summonses were issued by the clerk of this court on the same day and made returnable on October 23, 1914. Six of these were served by the respective sheriffs on dates from September 23 to September 30, and were all returned and filed in this court on October 23, 1914. The other three do not seem to have been returned at all. One of these defendants in error that were not so served was included in the publication notice for service hereafter mentioned, but no service, either by publication or otherwise appears to have been further attempted on the other two.

On September 29, 1914, the attorney for plaintiffs in error filed in this court an affidavit for publication of summons in' error under which publication was had, the first publication being September 30, 1914, and the last on ■November 11, 1914.

On August 22, 1914, the Wyoming Development Company, one of the defendants in error, filed in this court a motion to dismiss the proceedings in error for the reason that the ‘ ‘ summons in error was not .served upon it within sixty days after the date thereof, nor within one year after the entry of the order overruling the motion of the plaintiffs in error for a new trial in the District Court”. This motion was finally disposed of in this court on December 23, 1915, (23 Wyo. 450, 153 Pac. 890), the motion being denied on the ground that the action in this court having been commenced by the filing of a petition in error, and the issuance of summons in error on January 3, 1914, within the time allowed by law, and being served on the mover within the life or before the return day of the summons in error, to-wit: August 1, 1914, which was a permissible day under the statute, the service' was in time and the action would not be dismissed. The principal contention in that matter seemed to have been the meaning or application of the words contained in Section' [99]*99■5111, 'Wyoming Compiled Statutes, 1910, relative to petitions and summons in error, as it then read, to-wit: ‘ ‘ and if issued in term time, it shall he returnable on a day therein named”, one side contending that this language meant a day of the term of . court, and the other, that it meant a day named in the summons in error. The section, which was amended by Chapter 70, Session Laws of 1917, to confine the time to not more than sixty days after the filing of the petition in error, then read:

“The proceedings to obtain such reversal, vacation, or modification, shall he by petition in error, filed in a court having power to make the reversal, vacation or modification, and setting forth the errors complained of; thereupon a summons shall issue and be served, or publication made, as in the commencement of an action, and a service on the attorney of record in the original ease shall be sufficient; the summons shall contain a statement that a petition in error has been filed in the case; and if issued in vacation, it shall be returnable on or before the first day of the term of the court, and if issued in term time, it shall be returnable on a day therein named; and if the last publication, or service of the summons, be made ten days before the end of the term, the case shall stand for hearing at that term.” This court held that under the statute as it was then, a return day exceeding sixty days after the date of issuance might be named in the summons in error;

On February 7, 1916, the Wyoming Development Company, a defendant in error, filed a motion herein to dismiss the proceedings in error, for the following reasons:

“1. That all those defendants in error upon whom summons in error was not served and who have not appeared herein are necessary parties to these proceedings in error, and that this court has acquired no jurisdiction of them, the only service upon them having been made by publication and the first publication having been made [100]*100more than sixty days after the expiration of one year from the entry in the district court of tbe order overruling the motions for the new trial.

2. That there is a misjoinder of plaintiffs in error and that said plaintiffs in error cannot unite in a single proceeding in error.”

This motion was argued and is now before the court for decision. The 2nd ground stated in the motion was not especially urged by the mover on the hearing, but under the first ground it is claimed, first: That in a proceeding of this kind, all those who were parties to the judgment in the court below, or whose rights would be affected by a reversal of the judgment are necessary parties to the proceeding in error and this court cannot proceed without them, and they must all be in some way brought in before the time limit for bringing proceedings in error has expired, unless they are so /‘united in interest” with some of the parties duly served as to come under that provision of Section 4305, Wyoming Compiled Statutes 1910 relating to those “united in interest”. Said section reads as follows:

“An action shall be deemed commenced, within the meaning of this chapter, as to each defendant, at the date of the summons which is served on him, or on a co-defendant who is a joint contractor, or otherwise united in interest with him.; and when service by publication is proper, the action shall be deemed commenced at the date of the first publication, if the publication be regularly made.” Second: That in a proceeding like this various defendants are not joined in interest as joint contractors but are really adverse to each other.

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Pioneer Canal Co. v. Akin
192 P. 680 (Wyoming Supreme Court, 1920)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
192 P. 680, 27 Wyo. 88, 1920 Wyo. LEXIS 28, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pioneer-canal-co-v-akin-wyo-1920.