Richardson v. Great Western Manufacturing Co.

43 P. 809, 3 Kan. App. 445, 1896 Kan. App. LEXIS 108
CourtCourt of Appeals of Kansas
DecidedFebruary 6, 1896
DocketNo. 56
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 43 P. 809 (Richardson v. Great Western Manufacturing Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Kansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Richardson v. Great Western Manufacturing Co., 43 P. 809, 3 Kan. App. 445, 1896 Kan. App. LEXIS 108 (kanctapp 1896).

Opinion

The-opinion of the court was delivered by

Dennison, J. :

A motion has been filed by the defendant in error to dismiss this case because the necessary parties .have not been brought into this court. None of the defendants below has been brought here as parties except Richardson, and it is claimed that the others are necessary to the determination of this suit. This is purely a jurisdictional question. Before a court can adjudicate the rights of a person, or disturb him in the enjoyment of his property, or take from him any privilege he now legally has in relation thereto, it should have jurisdiction over the person and [447]*447the property sought to be disturbed. When the question of jurisdiction is brought before us, we must •consider the status of all the other parties to the controversy and how their rights may be affected by our ■decision. If.their rights can be prejudicially affected by any decision we may make, then we must have jurisdiction of the persons before we can adjudicate their rights. If the record shows that they have no interest or concern in the subject-matter of the suit, and their interests can in no way be jeopardized by the reversal or modification of the judgment, it is not necessary for this court to obtain jurisdiction over .them in order to adjudicate the rights of the real parties in interest as to the subject-matter in controversy. Because a person is made a party upon either side of an action, it does not necessarily follow that jurisdiction of such a person is necessary to the full determination of the subject-matter of the suit.

We may say in this connection that the dismissal of cases over the protest of the plaintiff in error is not favored by this court. The motion therefor will be granted only when the defendant in error has a clear legal right to demand it. This plaintiff in error has been to considerable expense, and has-been endeavoring for about six years to obtain a legal adjudication of the controversy between himself and the defendant in error, and we do not think this court should summarily throw his case out of court unless a clear legal reason is shown therefor. A case in this court will be •dismissed for want of necessary parties only when it is made to appear that the decision of the court might prejudicially affect the rights or interests of some person not before it.

We have carefully examined the decisions of our supreme and appellate courts, and are satisfied that [448]*448that is as far as they ever intended to hold. Such seems to be the ruling of the supreme court in Ex parte Polster, 10 Kan. 204; Ferguson v. Smith, 10 id. 394; Armstrong v. Durland, 11 id. 15 ; Hodgson v. Billson, 11 id. 357; Bassett v. Woodward, 13 id. 341; The State v. Cummerford, 16 id. 509; Richardson v. McKim, 20 id. 346 ; Browne’s Appeal, 30 id. 331; Wilson v. Price Raid Aud. Com., 31 id. 261; Stationery Co. v. Hentig, 31 id. 317; McPherson v. Storch, 49 id. 313 ; Paving Co. v. Botsford, 50 id. 331; Steele v. Baum, 51 id. 165 ; Loan Co. v. Lumber Co., 53 id. 677; Norton v. Wood, 55 id. 559; Investment Co. v. National Bank, 56 id. 49 ; and the same seems to be the ruling of the courts of appeals in Bain v. Conn. M. Life Ins. Co., ante, p. 346 ; Bonebrake v. Ætna Life Ins. Co. [post], 41 Pac. Rep. 67 ; National Bank v. National Bank, 1 Kan. App. 159. To hold that the rights of the real parties to a controversy cannot be adjudicated by a court because some person not before it may be incidentally benefited by a modification or a reversal of the judgment, would be to apply the rule when the reason for it did not exist.

In the case at bar, Horace Pardee, Eugene Pardee, Emma Pardee and A. G. Forney were made defendants in the court below and were not made parties in this court. Therefore, it will be necessary to inquire into what rights they have in the property in controversy, and how their rights might be injuriously affected by a reversal or a modification of the judgment rendered herein. This action was brought to recover the possession of specific personal property. No .damage for its detention is claimed. No one claims to own or control or detain the property adverse to the alleged rights of the plaintiff below except Richardson. No demand was ever made upon Horace or Eugene Pardee for the property. When the demand [449]*449was made upon A. G. Forney and Emma Pardee, they both told the person who made the demand to go and take the property. No one detained the property from the defendant in error except Richardson. The gist of the action of replevin is the wrongful detention. The action should have been brought against Richardson only. The fact that other parties who did not detain the property were made parties defendant certainly should not now be a ground for dismissing the case. Suppose none of these persons had been, made parties in the court below, and the necessary steps had been instituted to make them parties : can it be contended that the trial court should have ordered it done after the court was convinced that not one of them had wrongfully detained the property in controversy from the possession of the plaintiff below? Certainly not. At the trial of this case in the court below, the defendant in error did not claim that any one except Richardson had detained the property or was interested in this controversy. In the statement of the case to the jury the defendant’s attorney made the following statement: .

‘1 The real controversy in the action is between True Richardson, alone, and the plaintiff, the Great Western Manufacturing Company; the other parties are simply made defendants because they are supposed to have more or less connection with the subject-matter of the' controversy. The real merits or gist of the business is between Richardson and the plaintiff.”

Counsel for defendant in error contends that as Horace Pardee signed the original contract and notes he will be injuriously affected by a modification or reversal of the judgment. This is not an action to foreclose a lien or to recover the amount due upon the notes and contract. It is an action in replevin to [450]*450recover tlie 'personal property. It is true that Richardson alleged a breach of the contract by the manufacturing company, by reason of • which no payment became due, and that, therefore, his detention of the property was not wrongful; but certainly Pardee’s interests cannot be jeopardized by a'reversal or modification of this judgment. Richardson is the owner of Pardee’s interest in the mill, and Pardee has no interest in the machinery. We must refuse to .dismiss this action upon the first ground set forth in the motion. r

The other ground of the motion to dismiss is that the case made does not contain such recitations as are necessary to challenge the attention of this court, because it does not state that it contains all the motions, journal entries, orders of the court, and other proceedings. The record recites that the case was tried upon the issues joined in the pleadings therein set forth, and that the proceedings therein indicated were had. The allegations as to evidence, objections, exceptions and all the rulings of the court thereon are certainly complete. The allegations as to the instructions refused and given, the special interrogatories and ver-' diet, the motion for a new trial and the action thereon, the judgment and the' journal entry all seem to be sufficient.

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Bluebook (online)
43 P. 809, 3 Kan. App. 445, 1896 Kan. App. LEXIS 108, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/richardson-v-great-western-manufacturing-co-kanctapp-1896.