Remely v. Kuntz

10 Pa. 180, 1849 Pa. LEXIS 191
CourtSupreme Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedApril 2, 1849
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 10 Pa. 180 (Remely v. Kuntz) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Remely v. Kuntz, 10 Pa. 180, 1849 Pa. LEXIS 191 (Pa. 1849).

Opinion

Bell, J.

Our acts of 1810 and 1836, introducing, and extending the remedy by compulsory arbitration, were intended to supply a system of costs, in cases of appeals from awards of arbitrators, and operated as a repeal.of the statute of Gloucester, wherever their provisions were applicable.

But the right to recover, or the liability to pay costs, was made to depend on the form of the recognisance, which the party appealing from an award was required to acknowledge. The prescribed conditions of these securities were intended to be' commensurate with the whole amount of costs the adverse party could recover, under the events contemplated by the condition. This was, however, found to be of limited effect; and, therefore, where the terms of the condition failed of application to the circumstances of the particular case, it was left to be governed by the law, as this stood prior to the enactment of the arbitration acts. But, under the events provided for, it worked, by necessary implication, an exoneration from payment of costs, where its condition remained unforfeited by the facts occurring subsequent to the' appeal. Such is the doctrine of Landis v. Schaffer, 4 S. & R. 196, Poke v. Kelly, 13 S. & R. 165, and other kindred cases, by which it was settled, that, where the recognisance stipulated the payment of costs in a particular event, the appellant was not bound to pay costs, if that [181]*181event failed to happen. Thus it was held, a defendant appellant was not hound to pay costs if the plaintiff recovered less than the amount of the award, for the recognisance, on appeal, stipulated such an obligation only in ease the plaintiff should recover a verdict as, or more favomable than the award; but, as it was not made incumbent on the plaintiff to pay costs to the appellant, each party .was left to bear the burden of his own costs, accruing subsequently to the appeal. So, too, if the plaintiff appealed, and recovered a judgment for less than the award, he was not entitled to recover the accruing costs; for, by the terms of his recognisance, he was bound'to pay costs, and his rights, as well as liabilities in respect to costs, were ascertained by that instrument: Comth. v. Shannon, 13 S. & R. 109; Rees v. Fisler, 5 Penna. L. J. 187. On the other hand, many cases established the rule, that, where the terms of the recognisance were inapplicable under the circumstances of the particular case, the arbitration acts had no influence in determining the question of costs. Thus, a plaintiff who appealed from an award made in favour of the defendant, and recovered a'verdict, or who appealed from an award in his own favour, and obtained a greater sum than the award, was entitled to recover the costs paid by him on entering his appeal, as well as those afterwards accruing. The former was the case in Comth. v. Shannon; and C. J. Tilghman, after reciting the form of the recognisance of a plaintiff appellant, observed, “There are no other provisions in this act mentioning particularly in what event of the suit the appellant shall be entitled to recover costs; so that we must recur to general principles, and, according to them, the plaintiff having obtained a verdict for $143.33, would certainly be entitled to costs. It would seem, therefore, to be the intent of the law, that, in such case, the plaintiff should recover the costs he paid on the entry of his appeal.” It was added, the same would be the result of an appeal, by plaintiff, from an award in his own favour, and a subsequent recovery of a larger amount; and this very point was afterwards decided in Haines v. Moorhead, 2 Barr, 65. The like rule obtained, and for the like reason, in appeals by defendants. If the plaintiff recovered a final judgment, though less favourable than the award, the appellant was not entitled to a return of the costs paid on the appeal, for the reason, it must be, that according to the terms of his recognisance, though exempted from the payment of costs subsequent to the appeal, he was not entitled to recover such costs from his adversary: Pratt v. Naglee, 6 S. & R. 299; Bellas v. Oyster, 7 W. 341. But, if the defendant obtained a general [182]*182verdict in his favour, he was entitled to the costs which follow a final judgment. This was the case of Gallatin v. Cornman, 1 Penna. 115; and it was decided, the appellant was entitled to full costs, under the law as it existed prior to the arbitration acts. It was observed, that the 14th sec. of the act of 1810, which gave the defendants’ recognisance, only looked to the case of a reduced judgment to be recovered by the plaintiff. It did not provide for the case of a verdict obtained by the defendant appellant. Such a case, therefore, was not provided for, and was, consequently, left to be governed by the law as it stood before the arbitration act, by which costs follow the final judgment. Penrose v. Pawling, 8 W. & S. 384, and the very recent case of Addison v. Hampson, 6 Barr, 463, is to the same effect.

These authorities, and others that might be added, very clearly show that the rights and liabilities of litigants, as to costs, were, under the acts of 1810 and 1836, altogether dependent on the conditions of the recognisances prescribed by the statutes, when these were shaped to meet existing facts; but if inapplicable, or otherwise inoperative, there was casus omissus, and the parties were necessarily thrown back upon the general law of costs as the arbiter between them. Such was the settled rule when, in 1842, the law abolishing imprisonment for debt was passed. One effect of the law was to strike from our system the recognisance of special bail, as inconsistent with the leading design of the abolishing act, and, consequently, it operated to repeal that portion of the act of 1836 which stipulated for such recognisances on appeals from awards. It was, accordingly, determined in Beers v. The West Branch Bank, 7 W. & S. 365, that such appeals were good without bail or recognisance of any kind.. Shortly after, it was decided in Merrit v. Smith, 2 Barr, 161, that the act of the 20th of March, 1845, did not interfere with that provision of the act of 1836, requiring payment, on appeal, of all costs due in the action, up to that time. The latter statute provides that, in lieu of the bail theretofore required, on appeals from the judgments of justices and awards of arbitrators, the bail shall be absolute in double the probable amount of the costs, accrued or likely to accrue, with one or more sureties, “ conditioned for the payment of all costs accrued or that' may be legally recovered in such cases against the appellants.” The effect of this enactment, as was held in Shuff v. Morgan, 7 Barr, 125, is to supersede those sections of the act of 1836, which prescribed the form of recognisances on appeal, and a recognisance taken under the earlier statute was, therefore, declared void, [183]*183as being repugnant to and unauthorized by the late act. It was acknowledged by a plaintiff appellant, after the act of 1845, and was conditioned that the plaintiff, in the event of a judgment for the defendant, would pay all costs, “with one dollar for each and every day that shall be lost by the said defendant in attending to such appeal.” The Chief Justice, after reciting the provisions of the act of 1845, remarked, there is “ not a word in this about payment of a daily allowance for prosecuting or defending the suit.

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Bluebook (online)
10 Pa. 180, 1849 Pa. LEXIS 191, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/remely-v-kuntz-pa-1849.