Reynolds v. Reynolds

1923 OK 735, 221 P. 109, 94 Okla. 114, 1923 Okla. LEXIS 475
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedOctober 2, 1923
Docket12986
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 1923 OK 735 (Reynolds v. Reynolds) 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
Reynolds v. Reynolds, 1923 OK 735, 221 P. 109, 94 Okla. 114, 1923 Okla. LEXIS 475 (Okla. 1923).

Opinion

Opinion by

RAY, C.

■ We think the motion to dismiss the appeal should be sustained. The plaintiff in error, plaintiff below, sued for divorce and alimony, for a division of the property, custody of the minor children, suit money and attorney’s fee. The defendant filed a cross-petition for divorce. The court made findings of fact and conclusions of law which were filed September 9,1921, and which concluded as follows:

“The defendant is better able to take care of the minor children than the plaintiff, and-is awarded the care, custody and control of them. He is also granted a divorce, but will be required to pay alimony to the plaintiff in the sum of $750 and $25 to plaintiff’s attorney as per the original order of the court and pay all court costs. The plaintiff ana defendant will c-aeli pay the fees and mileage of their respective witnesses.”

On the same day the plaintiff filed motion for a new trial upon the following grounds:

“* * * (5) That the findings and decision are not supported by sufficient evidence.
“(6) That the findings and decision are contrary to law.
“(7) That the findings and decision are contrary to the evidence. * * *”

September 20, 1921, the motion for- a new trial was overruled, to which plaintiff excepted and in open court gave notice of appeal, and the clerk, by order of the court, entered the same on the trial docket as required by chapter 219, Session Laws 1917, (sec. 782, Oomp. Stat. 1921). The plaintiff was given 30 days to make and serve case-made. On her application time was extended for making and serving case-made five different times, the last extension being to and including the 7fh day of January, 1922. January 6, 1(922, plaintiff filed a motion for judgment on the court’s findings of September 9, 1921. This motion called the attention of the court to the fact that no journal entry of judgment had been entered upon the findings. January 7, 1922, on application of the plaintiff, time to make and serve case-made was extended to January 9, and on the 9th was again extended to and including the 13th day of January, 1922. January 10, 1922, and while the motion for judgment on the findings was pending, the court signed and caused to be tiled a journal entry of judgment upon the findings as of September 9, 1921. The next day, January 11, the plaintiff’s motion for judgment upon the pleadings was overruled, and. on the same day, plaintiff filed another motion for a new trial, setting up the same grounds in the same language as the former motion, with these two grounds added:

“(10) For the reason tha,t no judgment of the court has been rendered and entered, to which omission the court’s attention has been called.
“(11) Error of the court in finding in favor of defendant on the issue of divorce and the custody of the minor children.”

On the same day the last motion for a new trial was overruled. The plaintiff again gave notice in open court of her intenton to appeal which was, as before, entered by the clerk upon the trial docket. Consideration of the motion for judgment on the findings and of the last motion for a new trial was over the objections df the defendant, but the court, after stating that judgment was in fact rendered on the 9th day of September, 1921, permitted counsel for plaintiff to make whatever record he desired for the purpose of presenting tlie question on appeal. January 12, 1922, the plaintiff filed with the clerk of the court notice of appeal as required by the divorce statute (4971, Rev. Laws 1910, [510, Oomp. Stat. 1921]). January 19, 1922, the petition in error with case-made attached was filed in this court.

Counsel for plaintiff in error contends that the judgment from which she seeks, to appeal was entered January 10, 1922, and not September 9, 1921. In other words, it is contended that the findings and conclusions of the court filed September 9, 1921, were not a judgment, and the subsequent filing of the journal entry as of that date did not make it a judgment of September 9, 1921, but a judgment as of the date it was actually filed, January 10. 1922. "With this contention we cannot agree. The custom of drawing up the formal journal entry of judgment by counsel after trial, for the signature of the trial judge, to be filed as of the day judgment was actually announced by the court, has been too long recognized by the bench and bar for the contention to merit serious consideration. IVc think the judgment from which plaintiff in error seeks to appeal was of date September 9, 1921, and that the order overruling the motion for a new trial, from -which, the ten-days for giving notice of appeal must bo cal- *116 eulatecl, was September 20, 1921. The findings and conclusions of the court, filed September 9, were sufficient to constitute a judgment if no formal journal entry of judgment had been signed' and filed. The defendant in error moved to dismiss the appeal upon the ground that no notice of appeal was filed with the clerk of the court within ten days after the judgment was rendered and was not appealed within four months from the date of the rendition of judgment.

Plaintiff in error gave the notice of appeal required by chapter 219, Session Laws 1917, but did not file with the clerk of the court the notice required by the divorce statute, section 510, Comp. Stat. 1921 (4971, Rev. Laws 1910), until January 32, 1922, more than three mpnths after the motion for new trial was overruled. It has been held by this court in Orcut v. Orcut, 25 Okla. 855, 108 Pac. 373; Rogers v. Rogers, 38 Okla. 195, 132 Pac. 476; Milam v. Milam, 76 Okla. 62, 184 Pac. 442; Linkugel v. Linkugel, 74 Oklahoma, 183 Pac. 55, and Vogt v. Vogt, 91 Okla. 272, 217 Pac. 192, that the notice required by section 510, Comp. Stat. 1921 (sec. 4971, Rev. Laws 1910), is jurisdictional. In Lewis v. Lewis, 39 Okla. 407, 135 Pac. 397, Montgomery v. Montgomery, 41 Okla. 581, 139 Pac. 288, and Howell v. Howell, 42 Okla. 286, 141 Pac. 412, this court held that such, notice was required only where it is sought to appeal from a judgment granting a divorce and not where the appeal is prosecuted from an order awarding ¿limony or making a division of property in divorce proceedings. But in Linkugel v. Link-ugel, supra, a later case, the opinion by Galbraith, Commissioner, “adopted in whole” by the court, it was said:

“Where an appeal is prosecuted for the purpose of having reviewed the judgment and decree granting a divo'rce, awarding permanent alimony and the custody of a minor child, the notice of intention to appeal must be filed within 10 days from the date of the decree and the appeal must be perfected within 4 months, as prescribed by section 4971, Rev. Laws 1910, otherwise this court is without jurisdiction to entertain the appeal.”

In this case the appeal is from the decree of divorce as well as from .the decree awarding alimony and the custody and control of the minor children. The 9th assignment of errors is as follows:

“There was error of the court in finding that the defendant in error was entitled to a divorce from the plaintiff in error over the objections and exceptions of the plainitff in error.”

Tt is contended by plaintiff in error that section 4971, Rev. Laws 1910 (510 Comp. Stat.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1923 OK 735, 221 P. 109, 94 Okla. 114, 1923 Okla. LEXIS 475, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/reynolds-v-reynolds-okla-1923.