Sears, Roebuck & Co. v. Nelson

299 N.W. 398, 230 Iowa 936
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedAugust 4, 1941
DocketNo. 44997.
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 299 N.W. 398 (Sears, Roebuck & Co. v. Nelson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sears, Roebuck & Co. v. Nelson, 299 N.W. 398, 230 Iowa 936 (iowa 1941).

Opinion

Oliver, J.

— Appellee, Sears, Boebuck and Company, instituted this action in equity in the District Court of Polk County, Iowa, alleging that as to its mail-order sales made outside the State of Iowa, to residents of Iowa, the Use Tax Act is unconstitutional in that it violates sections 8 and 10 of Article I and section 1 of the fourteenth amendment of the Constitution of the United States, and praying that the provisions in question be adjudged unconstitutional and that defendant-appellants, acting as the State Board of Assessment and Beview, be enjoined from enforcing the provisions of the act against appellee as to such sales. The district court decreed said provisions to be unconstitutional and enjoined their enforcement by appellants. This court affirmed the decree of the district court. Sears, Boebuck and Company v. Boddewig' et al., State Board of Assessment and Beview, 228 Iowa 1273, 292 N. W. 130. The Supreme Court of the United States adjudged the provisions of the act, as applied to said mail-order business, to be not in violation of the Constitution of the United States. Accordingly, the judgment was reversed and the cause remanded to this court for proceedings not inconsistent with said opinion. Nelson v. Sears, Roebuck and Company, 312 U. S. 359, 61 S. Ct. 586, 85 L. Ed. 522, 132 A. L. R. 475.

Appellee now moves that this court consider issues not yet argued or decided in this case; or, in the alternative, upon remand to the district court that leave be granted to amend the pleadings and introduce further evidence with respect to such issues. Appellee concedes the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States to be final as to the power of the state to impose upon it said obligations of collection and payment of the Iowa Use Tax, insofar as that power is tested by the provisions of the Federal Constitution. But appellee suggests that said power has not been exercised and moves that we proceed in this ease to construe the Use Tax Act in the light of its provisions and also that we determine whether the questioned provisions are violative of the Constitution of the State of Iowa, or *938 that upon remand to the trial court leave be granted to amend its pleadings with respect to said matters.

In this case the pleadings raised no issue other than that involving the constitutionality of the act (as applied to said mail-order business) under the Constitution of the United States. That issue was fully tried and decided by the trial court. The trial in this court was de novo and said issue was again passed upon. Finally the same issue was presented to and decided by the Supreme Court of the United States. Appellee’s motion, following the adverse decision by the Supreme Court of the United States, is, in effect, an application for permission to revive and retry the case upon new and different issues and theories and with new pleadings.

‘ The trial of a chancery case in this court, which was heard in the court below upon written evidence, being de novo, is final and another trial cannot be again had in the court below unless for some special reason it is so ordered. ’ ’ Ronna v. American State Bank, 215 Iowa 806, 812, 246 N. W. 798, 801. However, in some cases the appellate court will remand with direction to “the district court to do only a special thing,” or “to exercise discretion, within proper limitations, to proceed further with the cause after remand.”

In the language of Kossuth Co. St. Bk. v. Richardson, 141 Iowa 738, 741, 118 N. W. 906, 907:

* * whenever essential to effectuate justice, an appellate tribunal may remand to the trial court for such further proceedings as the circumstances of the particular case require.” Citing authorities.

In Chicago, M. & St. P. Ry. Co. v. Hemenway, 134 Iowa 523, 525, 111 N. W. 987, 988, it is said leave to reopen the case upon remand after reversal “will be granted only in furtherance of justice, and the showing must be such as ordinarily would entitle a party to a new trial — thus, to permit the introduction of material evidence, omitted by excusable inadvertence, or where material evidence, not cumulative, has been discovered since the submission, and which could not have been sooner discovered in the exercise of reasonable diligence, or because of matters materially affecting the rights of the parties happening subsequent to the decree, and the like.”

*939 And Sanxey v. Iowa City Class Co., 68 Iowa 542, 547, 27 N. W. 747, 749, states: “ * * * the amendment to the pleadings necessary for this purpose may also be made.” See also Short-hill v. Ferguson, 47 Iowa 284.

A few examples of remands with instructions in appeals triable de novo are Dierksen v. Pahl, 194 Iowa 713, 190 N. W. 423, on account of the confusion in the pleadings and procedure of both parties; Whitmer v. Board of Directors, 210 Iowa 239, 230 N. W. 413, to permit joinder of necessary parties; Brewer v. Hugg, 114 Iowa 486, 87 N. W. 409, to dispose of issues necessarily unadjudicated.

A case in which the circumstances were deemed sufficient to justify the determination after remand of an issue which had been overlooked but which required no new pleadings or evidence is Sleeper v. Killion, 182 Iowa 245, 164 N. W. 241. That suit was by a guardian to quiet title in her ward. Defendant pleaded title through foreclosure. The trial court held the foreclosure valid and did not consider the nature or extent of the ward’s interest. The opinion upon appeal captioned the case “Action by a minor to set aside a decree on the ground that no proper service was made upon him * * Sleeper v. Killion, 166 Iowa 205, 147 N. W. 314. The decree was reversed, without directions, solely because of want of notice in the foreclosure case. In holding that defendant was upon remand entitled to a determination of the interest of plaintiff’s ward in the property as shown by the evidence, the court said, 182 Iowa at 257, 164 N. W. at 245:

“The plaintiff was the moving party, and had the burden of proving the alleged title of her ward. * * * The legal effect of this proof was, * * * to establish the ward’s right and title to one third of the land, and to negative conclusively his claim as to the other two thirds. * * * To have the advantage of these facts and to have their rights preserved in the decree to be entered, no amendment of the pleadings was necessary.”

Hormel v. Helvering, 312 U. S. 552, 61 S. Ct. 719, 85 L. Ed. 1037, cited by appellee, involved an income tax claim against the taxpayer which had been originally based upon a particular section of the act but which upon review was predicated upon *940 a different section, following a subsequent supreme court decision in an analogous case. Under the circumstances, upon reversal and remand, the opportunity was given to offer evidence upon this new issue before the Board of Tax Appeals.

In U. S. v. Rio Grande Dam & Irrigation Co., 184 U. S. 416, 22 S. Ct. 428, 46 L. Ed. 619, the trial court erroneously denied a party the opportunity to prepare and submit its case.

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Bluebook (online)
299 N.W. 398, 230 Iowa 936, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sears-roebuck-co-v-nelson-iowa-1941.