Reynolds v. Powers

29 S.W. 299, 96 Ky. 481, 1895 Ky. LEXIS 99
CourtCourt of Appeals of Kentucky
DecidedJanuary 24, 1895
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 29 S.W. 299 (Reynolds v. Powers) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Kentucky primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Reynolds v. Powers, 29 S.W. 299, 96 Ky. 481, 1895 Ky. LEXIS 99 (Ky. Ct. App. 1895).

Opinion

JUDGE GBACE

delivered the opinion oe the court.

This case is now before ns on a petition by appellant for a rehearing, and seeking a reversal of the judgment rendered herein by the Superior Court of Kentucky on the 19th day of December, 1894, whereby said court affirmed the judgment of the Jefferson Circuit Court (Law and Equity Division), appealed from by appellant, said judgment having been rendered in said court on the 21st day of June, 1893, and being for the sum [484]*484of two thousand two hundred and four dollars and twenty cents, with interest from the 2d day of November, 1875, at rate of six per cent, per annum, in favor of appellee against appellant.

The Superior Court, as appears by its opinion, seems to have given said cause a careful consideration, noting the chief matters of interest in issue between the parties, and especially the evidence and the findings of the jury on the question of the identity of the defendant in this suit with the same I). S. Reynolds sued in the Nashville Chancery Court, and the service of summons personally on him in said original action in the county of Davidson, State of Tennessee (this suit being founded on a judgment of said court); and upon those issues the Superior Court said the evidence was overwhelming against appellant, approving also the instructions of the court below, whereby said issues were submitted to the jury ; likewise affirming the ruling of the lower court to the effect that the plea of the statute of limitation made by appellant was not well taken.

There were some minor matters presented by appellant’s brief which said court did not particularly notice, as that the lower court erred in permitting appellee to speak of certain conversations with two Catholic priests in Nashville, Tennessee — Father Fortune and Father Walsh, both now dead — in reference to the original transactions with said D. S. Reynolds, out of which the suit of appellee grew. We find, on examination of the record, that said appellant was present at the time, and heard and was a party participant in said conversations (that is if appellee is to be believed), and thus, whether her testimony was [485]*485true or false, it was clearly competent. Appellant likewise objected to the testimony of one Briswalder, as read from the evidence incorporated in a bill of exceptions taken in this same cause on a former trial thereof, appellee showing on this trial, by oral testimony, that said Briswalder was now absent from the State, resident beyond its jurisdiction. Such ruling by the court below was correct, and has been often approved by this court.

Another objection claimed by appellant for a rehearing is that the judge below, himself, fixed by an instruction the amount that the jury were to find for plaintiff, (if they found for him at all), and that he instructed the jury to find against appellant interest on that amount from Nov. 2, 1875, until paid. These rulings were quite correct, the suit being on the record of a judgment of a court of a sister State, and the question as to whether said judgment bore interest or not, being a question of law and not of fact, and the statute of Kentucky providing that judgments of. courts of record of sister States shall be presumed (unless the contrary be shown) to bear a like rate of interest as judgments rendered in this State.

Yet, some other minor objections are still urged by appellant on matters of evidence used against him, but an examination shows the court ruled correctly on same.

There is one question, however, and only one, made by appellant, both in his brief to the Superior Court and in his petition for a rehearing, that demands consideration, and that seems to have been overlooked by' the Superior Court; and that is, that there is and [486]*486was an error apparent on the face of the judgment rendered by the chancery court in Nashville, Tenn., in declaring the amount of the judgment against him And that this error, while it may have been only a clerical misprision in and by said court at Nashville, yet that same error having now been, under a peremptory instruction by the court to the jury that tried this case in the Jefferson Circuit Court in Kentucky, embraced in their verdict and then made the judgment of the court below, we apprehend that same as it now stands can only be corrected by this appeal and on this petition for a rehearing. The error alluded to consists in this, and is apparent on the face of the judgment of the Nashville Chancery Court. Said judgment recites, “that appellant Reynolds, having at two different occasions borrowed of appellee, Mrs. Powers, the aggregate sum of sixteen hundred dollars, and having executed to her his note for same, dated 23d day of January, 1866, and having a few days thereafter repaid her on said note the sum of three hundred and ten dollars, leaving a balance of one thousand three hundred and ninety dollars of principal due on said note, with interest on same from January 23, 1866, to date, it being nine years and nine months. * * * * * * * * * It is therefore ordered and adjudged by the court that complainant, Margaret Powers, recover of the defendant, 1). S. Reynolds, the balance of the debt in the pleadings mentioned, of thirteen hundred and ninety dollars, and the further sum of eight hundred and fourteen dollars and twenty cents, the interest thereon up to the present time, making together the [487]*487sum of twenty-two hundred and four dollars and twenty cents.”

Thus, by inspection and on the face of said judgment, it will be seen that there is an error of one hundred dollars in the balance of the principal of the debt. Same was only one thousand two hundred ;and ninety dollars, instead of one thousand three hundred and ninety dollars as adjudged, and this error being also carried into the computation of interest, makes an error therein of fifty-eight dollars and fifty cents. Said interest should have been seven hundred .and fifty-five dollars and seventy cents, instead of eight hundred and fourteen dollars and twenty cents, and both said errors being carried into the final sum adjudged against Reynolds of two thousand two hundred and four dollars and twenty cents, make an error in said amount of one hundred and fifty-eight dollars .and fifty cents. So that the final judgment in said court should have been for two thousand and forty-five dollars and seventy cents instead of two thousand two hundred and four dollars and twenty cents, and this to the prejudice of the rights of appellant. For this error only the rehearing asked for by appellant is granted, and both parties having heretofore freely presented this matter to the court by briefs, makes any delay in announcing the judgment of the court unnecessary, and this cause is now submitted.

In examining this matter it is clear that so far as the chancery court in Tennessee is concerned this was a clerical misprision, and the law of Tennessee being .given in evidence on this trial, it appears they have a provision in .their Code similar to the practice in Ken[488]*488tucky, whereby errors of this kind may be corrected on motion at any time, without appeal. Appellee, however, concedes this to be a clerical misprision in the Nashville court, and, if we understand the brief of her attorney, claims it is still but a clerical misprision in the judgment of the trial court at Louisville, and so argues that same can not on this appeal be considered by this court as ground for reversal of his judgment, no motion having yet been made for its correction in either the court at Nashville, Tenn.,. or at Louisville.

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Bluebook (online)
29 S.W. 299, 96 Ky. 481, 1895 Ky. LEXIS 99, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/reynolds-v-powers-kyctapp-1895.