Rose v. Osborne

11 A.2d 345, 136 Me. 393, 1940 Me. LEXIS 8
CourtSupreme Judicial Court of Maine
DecidedFebruary 16, 1940
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 11 A.2d 345 (Rose v. Osborne) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Judicial Court of Maine primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Rose v. Osborne, 11 A.2d 345, 136 Me. 393, 1940 Me. LEXIS 8 (Me. 1940).

Opinion

Hudson, J.

On report. Thrice heretofore these parties have presented litigation to this Court pertaining to the three savings accounts still involved: viz., one in Androscoggin County Savings Bank of Lewiston, Maine, another in Savings Bank of New London, Connecticut, and still another in Mariners Savings Bank, also of New London.

That first determined was the ownership of these «accounts between the plaintiff, the administratrix of the estate of Jacob W. Silliker, the depositor, and George Osborne, Jr., his nephew, the latter having claimed all of them by reason of alleged gifts inter vivos. In that action (Rose v. Osborne, 133 Me., 497, 180 A., 315) it was held that there had been a valid gift inter vivos to the defendant only of the account in the Savings Bank of New London.

Therein the Law Court directed that decree issue in accordance with the opinion. Counsel for the plaintiff drafted a decree, to which defendant’s counsel filed corrections. Equity Rule XXVIII. Although hearing was had, no decision was then rendered by the single justice. No doubt having learned that before the issuance of the injunction on the original bill the defendant had withdrawn money, from the Mariners Savings Bank and the Androscoggin County Savings Bank accounts, the plaintiff “sought by the terms of the decree to force the application” of the deposit in the Savings Bank of New London “to make good the deficiency.”

But before decree was signed, the plaintiff brought a so-called supplemental bill seeking to accomplish the same purpose thereby. That supplemental bill was not heard below, but, together with the question as to the decree on the original bill, was reported to the Law Court. In Rose, Adm’x v. Osborne, Jr., 135 Me., 467, this report was discharged, the Court saying on page 469, 199 A., 623, 624:

[395]*395“If the so-called supplemental bill is in the nature of an addition to or continuance of the orignial bill, it will not lie, for the case stood as finally decided by the Law Court on the filing of the mandate. If the so-called supplemental bill is in the nature of a bill to enforce a decree, it is premature, if brought before the entry of the decree on the original bill.”

Thereafter, decree on the original bill was signed and filed in which, as to the Androscoggin County Savings Bank account, it was adjudged:

“That on the date of the death of the said Jacob W. Silliker, the amount of said deposit in said Androscoggin County Savings Bank aggregating $5481.18, came into the possession of the defendant, who holds the same for the use and benefit of the plaintiff.
“. . . That the said plaintiff as the Administratrix of the Estate of the said Jacob W. Silliker, is entitled to receive from the said defendant the said sum of $5481.18, together with the increase thereof, and the said defendant is hereby ordered to pay the same to the said plaintiff within twenty days from the date of the signing of this Decree, including the increase upon said sum to the date of said payment,”

and as to the Mariners Savings Bank account:

“That on the date of the death of said Jacob W. Silliker, the amount of said deposit in said Mariners Savings Bank amounting to $7301.72 was the property of the said Jacob W. Silliker and not the property of the defendant.
“. . . That on the date of the death of the said Jacob W. Silliker, the amount of said deposit in said Mariners Savings Bank amounting to $7301.72 came into the possession of the defendant, who holds the same for the use and benefit of the plaintiff.
“. .. That the said plaintiff as the Administratrix of the Estate of the said Jacob W. Silliker, is entitled to receive from the said defendant the sum of $7301.72, together with the in[396]*396crease thereof, and the said defendant is hereby ordered to pay the same to the said plaintiff within twenty days from the date of the signing of this Decree, including the increase upon said sum to the date of said payment.”

By this decree it was also adjudged:

“That the accounts standing in the Savings Bank of New London on the date of the death of the said Jacob W. Silliker were the property of the defendant, so that he is entitled to receive the same.”

Thus the plaintiff did not obtain by decree the relief sought: viz., restoration of said withdrawals by use of the defendant’s account in the Savings Bank of New London.

To this decree she took exceptions which were argued before and overruled by this Court. Rose, Admx. v. Osborne, Jr., 136 Me., 15, 1 A., 2d, 225. The opinion in that case came down August 16, 1938. Two days later she brought this present bill which her counsel terms a “supplemental bill in the nature of a bill to enforce a decree,”— viz., the decree on the original bill.

The defendant, in his answer to the pending supplemental bill, inserted a demurrer which, as we view the law dispositive of this case, alone needs to be considered.

The defense of “a new and distinct cause of action” set forth in a supplemental bill “may be taken advantage of by demurrer when apparent by the bill.” Whitehouse Equity Practice, Vol. 1, Sec. 135, page 261. Relief different from that sought in the original may be obtained by a proper supplemental bill, where the cause of action is the same.

“It,” meaning the supplemental bill, “will never lie to introduce a new cause of action which has arisen since the filing of the original bill. . . .’’ Whitehouse, supra, page 259.

In Birmingham v. Lesan, 77 Me., 494, the following quotation on page 498, 1 A., 151, 152, is taken with approval from Pinch v. Anthony, 10 Allen, 470:

“. . . we know of no case that goes so far as to authorize a party who has no cause of action at the time of filing his origi[397]*397nal bill, to file a supplemental bill in order to maintain his suit upon a cause of action that accrued after the original bill was filed, even though it arose out of the same transaction that was the subject of the original bill.”

In the Massachusetts case, supra, it was also stated on page 477:

“Milner v. Milner, 2 Edw. R., 114, is an authority against allowing a new cause of action to be stated in a supplemental bill. But the plaintiff may by means of a supplemental bill introduce into his case facts that have occurred since the original bill was filed. The extent to which this may be done is not definitely settled. But if he goes too far in this respect, the defendant has opportunity to object to it when leave is asked to file the supplemental bill; Pedrick v. White, 1 Met., 76; or by demurrer to the bill for that cause after it is filed.”

In 19 Am. Jur., it is stated in Sec. 350 on page 244:

“While the prayer of a supplemental bill may ask for other and different relief from that demanded in the original bill, the new matter introduced should be such as refers to and supports the case made in the original bill and the prayer should likewise be in furtherance of that case.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
11 A.2d 345, 136 Me. 393, 1940 Me. LEXIS 8, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rose-v-osborne-me-1940.