Ranney-Davis Mercantile Co. v. Morris

1923 OK 20, 211 P. 1044, 88 Okla. 107, 1923 Okla. LEXIS 556
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedJanuary 11, 1923
Docket13255
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 1923 OK 20 (Ranney-Davis Mercantile Co. v. Morris) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ranney-Davis Mercantile Co. v. Morris, 1923 OK 20, 211 P. 1044, 88 Okla. 107, 1923 Okla. LEXIS 556 (Okla. 1923).

Opinion

McNEILL, J.

This is an appeal from the judgment of the district court of Garfield county in favor of defendants in error and against the plaintiff in error.

On the 11th day of March, 1922, the court made an order extending the time 30 days from the time theretofore granted to prepare and serve case-made, ten days thereafter given for the purpose of suggesting amendments, case-made to be signed and settled upon five days’ notice. It is conceded the time for serving case-made would expire on April 16, 1922. The case-made was served upon the 27th day of March and at the same time a notice was given that the case-made would be presented for settlement and allowance on the 15th day of April, 1922. On *108 the 15 th day of April, 1922, the defendants ;.ip error appeared by their, attorneys and plaintiff in error appeared! hy its attorneys, no amendments, were suggested nor objection .made-to signing and settling the ease-made, and, the' same was settled and signed by the court. Defendants in error now move to dis'miss the appeal for the reason this court was without jurisdiction because the defendants in error had until the 26th day of April, 1922,' in which to suggest amendments and the court had no jurisdiction to sign the case-made prior to said time.

The motion is not well taken. This court, in the case of Stieber v. Stieber, 82 Okla. 205, 200 Pac. 141, stated as follows:

'“Where due notice is given of the time and place that a ease-made will be presented to the trial judge for settlement and signature, and the party upon whom said notice .-is served appears at the time and place designated in the notice and suggests no amendments- and makes no objection to the signing and settlement of the case-made on said date, although the time fixed therein for presenting said case-made to the judge for signing and settlement may be at a time earlier than it could be presented and signed, held, the voluntary appearance of the party at the settlement without objection operates as a waiver regarding the time when said case-made may he settled.”

■■ The facts relating to signing and settlement of the case-made are the same as the .facts in the case above cited, and that decision controls this case.

In view of the fact that there are numerous motions pending to dismiss appeals •where the facts are similar, and there is .an apparent ■ conflict in the decisions of this court, involving the question whether a case-made is a nullity if signed prior to the time it is authorized to be signed, when the opposite party was regularly served with notice and failed to appear or appeared and made no objection to signing and settling of the case-made, we have deemed it advisable to .write an opinion attempting to settle these questions.

This court, in the case of Southwestern Surety Ins. Co. v. Dietrich, 68 Okla. 114, 172 Pac. 51, stated as follows:

“Wo are of the opinion that the true rule is, and we so declare it to he, that where a ease-made is settled and signed by the trial judge prior to the time it might properly be settled and signed upon notice duly given of the time and place, and no appearance is made or amendments suggested, or objections offered by the party upon whom the notice was served, the case-made is not a nullity, but at most the action of the trial court is merely an irregularity which could ]be.corrected upon application, by the party interested, to the trial court.”

In support of this contention, the court cited the case of Gross v. Funk, 20 Kan. 655, which held as follows:

. “Where -due notice of the time and place of settling and signing a case-made for the Supreme Court has been given to the adverse party, such party cannot ignore such notice, or treat it. as a nullity, although the time fixed in such notice for settling and signing such case-made be earlier than the case could properly be settled and signed. And where the 'judge of the court, in the absence of the adverse party, and without any objection from him or from any other person, settles and signs the case upon such a notice, and nothing further is done concerning the same the Supreme Court will, in the absence of other irregularities, treat the case as valid.”

The Supreme Court of Kansas, in the case of Russell v. Anthony, 21 Kan. 450, stated as follows:

“The case-made is entirely silent upon these matters. But it is satisfactorily shown by evidence (outside of the case-made) introduced in this court that soon after the case was made, and within the time given by the court, the case was' served upon one .of the attorneys of 'record for the defendant in error, who then and there said it was ‘all right’; and afterwards said case was settled and signed by the judge of the court below in the presence of said attorney, with his knowledge and without any objection from him. Under such circumstances, we think the five days’ time was waived; that counsel consented that the case should then and there be settled and signed: and that the defendant in error cannot now be allowed to say that the case was settled and signed earlier than it should have been.”

This court, in the case of Watson v. Shaffner. 77 Okla. 1. 184 Pac. 1016. attempted to distinguish the facts in that case from the rule laid down in the case of Southwestern Surety Ins. Co. v. Dietrich, supra, and stated as follows:

“The court as now constituted express grave doubts as to the correctness of the conclusion reached in that case. As the facts therein are not in all respects the same as in the instant case, we refrain from disturbing the opinion therein.”

When the statements of facts are read in-both cases, there is no distinction.

In Watson v. Shaffner this court cited the case of M.. K. & T. Ry. v. City of Ft. Scott, 15 Kan. 435, and stated as follows:

“This case was decided in 1875, and was a construction of the statutes and laws of Kansas at the time we adopted the Kansas. *109 Code of Procedure, and became the law of Oklahoma.”

The opinion in the case of M., K. & T. Ry. Co. v. City of Ft. Scott did not pass upon the question of whether a case-made signed and settled prior to the time it might have been signed according to the order previous-liv made was a nullity, or only irregular and voidable. In that case the second and third paragraphs of the syllabus, being the only ones that refer to this question, are as follows :

“(2) The statute allows three days after the time fixed for making and serving a case for the suggestion of amendments; and an extension of time for making and serving a case does not take away the three days for the suggestion of amendments, and such latter time commences to run, not from the date of the actual service of the case-made, but from the expiration- of the period of extension.
“(3) Where, by the order of the court, 30 days are given in which to make and serve a case, it is settled and signed in time, if settled and signed within 33 days from the date of the order.”

The question whether the case-made was a nullity or only irregular and voidable was not discussed, nor was the question of what constituted a waiver discussed or decided by the court.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1923 OK 20, 211 P. 1044, 88 Okla. 107, 1923 Okla. LEXIS 556, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ranney-davis-mercantile-co-v-morris-okla-1923.