Reynolds v. Forbes

116 So. 2d 539, 237 Miss. 798, 1959 Miss. LEXIS 535
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 14, 1959
DocketNo. 41311
StatusPublished

This text of 116 So. 2d 539 (Reynolds v. Forbes) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Reynolds v. Forbes, 116 So. 2d 539, 237 Miss. 798, 1959 Miss. LEXIS 535 (Mich. 1959).

Opinion

Lee, J.

Mrs. Juanita Reynolds, by her original and amended declarations, in the Circuit Court of Forrest County, sued Jack Forbes, an individual and a resident of Marion County, Jack Forbes doing business as Jack Forbes Lumber Company, a resident of Marion County, T. Heck Webb, doing business as Mid-State Paving Company, a resident of Lauderdale County, and Myers-Webb Construction Company, a domestic corporation, domiciled in Lauderdale County, to recover damages for personal injuries sustained by her in an intersectional collision of her Ford car with a Lincoln automobile, driven by Forbes.

Forbes filed an application for a change of venue to Marion County, where he maintained his household and residence. The other two defendants filed separate demurrers.

Francis T. Zachary, the regular judge of the court, rescued himself. The parties agreed for Judge Thomas D. Ott, the chancellor of that district, to preside in the cause. The matter was heard by him on the demurrers and the separate application of Forbes for a change of venue. The demurrers were sustained and the cause was dismissed as to the demurrants when the plaintiff did not ask for the privilege of amending, and the application for a change of venue was sustained, and the venue of the cause was changed to Marion County, the household and residence of Jack Forbes. The announcement of this decision was made about 4:30 P. M. and the order therefor was signed by Judge Ott about 6:30 P. M. on September 4, 1958, and such order was lodged with the clerk at 9:28 A. M. on September 5, 1958.

[802]*802Thereafter at 10:10 A. M. on September 5, 1958, the plaintiff filed with Judge Zachary a motion for a non-suit, the motion was granted, and an order to that effect was entered. On the next day, Jack Forbes made a motion to set aside the order, which allowed the non-suit, and Judge Zachary made a finding of fact as to what had transpired, as stated above, and held that the Circuit Court of Forrest County did not have jurisdiction of the cause when the motion for a nonsuit was presented and when he signed the order thereon. He therefore set aside his order of nonsuit.

The original court file, with all papers and certified copies of the orders and judgments, under the certificate of the clerk, were forwarded to the Circuit Court of Marion County.

Forbes, on September 6, 1958, filed an answer in the Circuit Court of Marion County, denying all of the material allegations of the original and amended declarations, and made his answer also a counterclaim in which he charged that the collision of the automobiles proximately resulted from the negligence of the plaintiff; and he sought to recover from Mrs. Reynolds for the personal injuries and property damage which he sustained, allegedly as a result thereof.

The plaintiff and cross-defendant, by her answer, denied the material allegations of the counterclaim.

The jury found a verdict for Forbes, on his counterclaim against Mrs. Reynolds, and assessed his damages in the sum of $15,000. From the judgment entered thereon, Mrs. Reynolds appealed.

The appellant contends that she had a right to take a voluntary nonsuit; that the court erred in setting aside the order to that effect; and that all subsequent proceedings were void.

Section 1538, Code of 1942 Rec., provides: “Every plaintiff desiring to suffer a nonsuit on trial shall be [803]*803barred therefrom unless he do so before the jury retire to consider of its verdict.”

The appellant has cited several of our cases, dealing with the right of nonsuit, but a reading thereof shows that, in each instance, the court still had jurisdiction when the nonsuit was granted. Consequently those cases are inapplicable. The rule in Welch v. Kroger Grocery Co., 180 Miss. 89, 177 So. 41, to the effect that the plaintiff may take a nonsuit if nothing further than the court’s oral announcement of its decision has been made, has no application here because the court, in the case here, had not only made its announcement that the demurrers and the motion to change the venue were sustained, but the judgment therefor had already been entered on the minutes of the court when the motion for the allowance of a voluntary nonsuit was made. As stated, Judge Zachary had recused himself. The appellant did not even present her motion for a nonsuit to Judge Ott. It was presented to Judge Zachary, who had not participated in the hearing at all. An, when Judge Zachary learned that Judge Ott had already decided the case and that the order for the change of venue had been entered on the minutes, he promptly set aside his former order.

92 C. J. S., Yenue, Section 202, pages 972-3, in part, seems to be directly in point: “As a general rule a change of venue divests the court making the order of further jurisdiction in the case, other than to transfer the cause to the proper court, and all steps taken in the case after the change of venue has been perfected are ineffective for any purpose. Thereafter it has no jurisdiction of the subject matter of the cause, the parties thereto, or any matter incident thereto. It has no power, jurisdiction, or authority to permit the filing of an answer in the case or to hear a defense therein, and it cannot make any further order or take any [804]*804further steps in the case, vacate a prior order entered in the case, enter cm order of dismissal or of default, render a judgment in the case, whether by default or on the merits, enter a judgment for costs, or tax the costs of the change. * * (Emphasis supplied).

See also 56 Am. Jur., Venue, Section 78, page 79, in part, as follows: “A change of venue not only absolutely divests the court from which the cause was removed of jurisdiction, but it also clothes the court to which removal is had with the same jurisdiction that reposed prior to the change in the court or original venue. Thereafter, the cause appertains and belongs exclusively to the court to which the order is directed. That court, by virtue of the change of venue, is invested with complete control and authority over the subject matter in dispute, and its jurisdiction and power cannot be ousted or destroyed by the improper interference of any other tribunal(Emphasis supplied).

From which its follows that the appellant’s motion, in the Circuit Court of Forrest County, to take a non-suit, came too late, and Judge Zachary’s allowance thereof was void.

The appellant also contends that the verdict of the jury was contrary to and against the overwhelming weight of the evidence, is grossly excessive, and evinces passion, bias and prejudice; and, for those reasons, her motion for a new trial should have been granted.

It is clear that, about 4:00 o ’clock in the afternoon of May 31,1958, Jack Forbes, accompanied by Charles Rogers and Victor Yawn, was proceeding in a westerly direction, driving his Lincoln automobile along the new section of Highway 13. Mrs. Juanita Reynolds, accompanied by her daughter Sandra, was proceeding in a southerly direction driving her Ford automobile alongthe Lower Lumberton Road. The vehicles collided in [805]*805the intersection of these two roads. The contact was between the left front of the Ford and the right front of the Lincoln. All of the occupants of the two cars were substantially injured. The appellant, by the allegations of her declaration, placed the full blame for the collision on Forbes. On the other hand, Forbes, in his answer and counterclaim, placed the full blame on Mrs. Reynolds.

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Related

GENERAL BENEVOLENT ASS'N. v. Fowler
50 So. 2d 137 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 1951)
Reed v. Eubanks, Admx., Etc.
98 So. 2d 132 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 1957)
Welch v. Kroger Grocery Co.
177 So. 41 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 1937)
J. C. Penney Co. v. Evans
160 So. 779 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 1935)

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Bluebook (online)
116 So. 2d 539, 237 Miss. 798, 1959 Miss. LEXIS 535, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/reynolds-v-forbes-miss-1959.