Sammis v. James

31 Fla. 10
CourtSupreme Court of Florida
DecidedJanuary 15, 1893
StatusPublished
Cited by30 cases

This text of 31 Fla. 10 (Sammis v. James) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sammis v. James, 31 Fla. 10 (Fla. 1893).

Opinion

Rakey, C. J.:

As shown by the preceding statement, this is an action instituted in the Circuit Court of Duval county in this State on a judgment recovered by James S. Wight-man, suing for the use of James and Lucetta Marcher, [24]*24against John S. Sammis in the Supreme Court of the city and county of New York in the state of New York.

The assignments of error are as follows: 1st. Sustaming the demurrer to the 2d. 3d and 4th pleas filed December 7th, 1884; 2d. Sustaining the demurrer to the 2d and 3d amended pleas filed November 9th, 1886; 3d. Sustaining the demurrer to the 4th and 5th pleas filed November 17th, 1886; 4th. The refusal to permit defendant to file the plea of plene administramt, offered January 11th, 1887; 5th. The refusal to charge the jury as requested by defendant; and, 6th. Entering the stated judgment.

It may be safely asserted that where a final judgment has been recovered against a person in a court of one state, and an action is brought on that judgment in a court of another state, the question of the former tribunal’s jurisdiction of the person sued is open to inquiry and adjudication in the latter court; but where the former tribunal has acquired jurisdiction of the person of the defendant against whom it rendered judgment, its adjudication of the merits of the controversy, assuming always that the court had jurisdiction of the subject-matter of the suit, is conclusive upon the courts of a sister state. These principles have been established with reference to the provisions of Section 1 of Article IY of the Constitution of the United States, that “full faith and credit shall be given in each state to the * * judicial proceedings [25]*25of any other State;” and “Congress may by general laws prescribe the manner in which such proceedings shall be proved and the effect thereof,” and those of the act of Congress thereunder, Sec. 905 R. S. U. S., ed. 1878, prescribing the mode of authenticating such proceedings, and that “judicial proceedings so authenticated, shall have such faith and credit given to them in every court within the United States as they have by law or usage in the courts of the state from which they are taken.” These principles are sustained by the following authorities: Braswell vs. Downs, 11 Fla., 62; Drake vs. Granger, 22 Fla., 348; Freeman on Judgments (4th ed.), 550-556; Black on Judgments, Secs. 856, 857, 867, 883, 889, 894-897, 898; Miles vs. Duryee, 7 Cranch, 481; Hampton vs. McConnell, 3 Wheaton, 234; McElmore vs. Cohen, 13 Peters, 312; Christmas vs. Russell, 5 Wall., 290; Board of Public Works vs. Columbia College, 17 Wall., 251; Gilpin vs. Page, 18 Wall., 320; Thompson vs. Whitman, 18 Wall., 447; Knowles vs. Gas Light Co., 21 Wall., 453; Maxwell vs. Stewart, 22 Wall., 77; Wilson vs. Bank, 6 Leigh, 570. We are not to be understood to admit that the immunity against collateral attack which the judgment sued upon enjoys in the second jurisdiction, includes exemption from assault where, although jurisdiction of the person has been obtained, there has been fraud upon the person against whom the judgment was rendered, in the circumstances of taking the same or the entry upon trial, and for which collateral relief could have been granted in the first jurisdiction; [26]*26Rogers vs. Gwin, 21 Iowa, 59; Pearce vs. Olny, 20 Conn., 544; Dobson vs. Peace, 1 Duer, 144, S. C, 12 N. Y., 165; Freeman on Judgments, Secs. 492, 576; Black on Judgments, Secs. 373, 916; or that there may not be other cases, not involving a consideration of the merits of the controversy, in which such immunity does not exist.

It is also true, and reasonably so, that where the party sued undertakes to assail by plea the jurisdiction over him of the court of the sister state in which the judgment sued on was obtained, the plea must negative by certain and positive averment every fact upon which such jurisdiction can be legally predicated. If by any reasonable intendment the facts alleged in the plea can exist, and the court rendering the judgment sued on still have had jurisdiction, the plea is bad. Black on Judgments, Sec. 898; Freeman on Judgments (3rded.), Sec. 455 (4th ed.), Sec. 461; Shumway vs. Stillman, 4 Cowen, 292; Starbuck vs. Murray, 5 Wend., 148; Smith vs. Rhoades, 1 Day, 168; Moulin vs. Trenton Mutual Life & Fire Ins. Co., 24 N. J. (Law), 222; Latterett vs. Cook, 1 Iowa, 1; Struble vs. Malone, 3 Iowa, 586; Welch vs. Sykes, 3 Gilman, 197; Puckett vs. Pope, 3 Ala., 552; Barkman vs. Hopkins, 11 Ark., 157, 168; Williams vs. Renwick, 52 Ark., 160; Price vs. Ward, 25 N. J. (Law), 225; Long vs. Long, 1 Hill, 597.

The test of these principles is to be applied to the pleadings before us; but before doing so, the observations to be found in the next succeeding paragraph are necessary.

[27]*27It is true that when the demurrer to the first set of pleas was put in, the second count of the declaration had not been filed. This count was filed October 28, 1886, or two days after such demurrer, but when the demurrer was heard, November 5, 1886, seven days had passed since the filing of the second count, and consequently under Section 98, page 834, McClellan’s Digest, the pleas referred to stood as pleaded to the new count, and the demurrer was applicable to them in their relation to the new count. The statutory provision referred to is, that when any amendment of any pleading is allowed, the opposite party shall be bound to plead to the amended pleading within two days after the amendment, unless otherwise ordered by the court; and in case the amended pleading has been pleaded to before amendment, and is not pleaded to de now within two days after amendment, or within such other time as the court may allow, the pleadings originally pleaded thereto shall stand and be considered as pleaded in answer to the amended pleadings. The new count was an amendment of the declaration, and there was no special order as to pleading to it.

Applying the test of these rules to the pleas as applicable to the first count of the declaration, we are entirely satisfied of the insufficiency of the 2nd and 3rd pleas filed December 7, 1885, and of the 2nd plea filed November 9, 1886, and of the 4th plea filed on the 17th of the same month. Though the first and second of these four pleas state that there was no service on John S. Sammis, the intestate, they fail alto. [28]*28gether to exclude the fact that he nevertheless may have appeared to the action in person or by attorney. The absence of service of summons is not inconsistent with the existence of such appearance. The same observations are also true of the third of these pleas. The assertion in the first and third, that he did not have his day in court, and in the latter, that the court had no jurisdiction of his person, are mere allegations of conclusions of law, having no other basis of fact presented by the plea than the averment of the respective pleas that there was no service of the summons. What a pleader’s idea may be as to what facts would have given the intestate his day in court, or the court jurisdiction of his person, can not be known by the judicial mind unless he states them in his pleading. He has failed to do so or to state that the intestate did not appear to the action, which appearance would have given jurisdiction and secured a day in court.

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Bluebook (online)
31 Fla. 10, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sammis-v-james-fla-1893.