Seward v. Rheiner

43 P. 423, 2 Kan. App. 95, 1895 Kan. App. LEXIS 220
CourtCourt of Appeals of Kansas
DecidedJanuary 17, 1896
DocketNo. 40
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 43 P. 423 (Seward v. Rheiner) 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
Seward v. Rheiner, 43 P. 423, 2 Kan. App. 95, 1895 Kan. App. LEXIS 220 (kanctapp 1896).

Opinion

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Johnson, P. J. :

Edward Rheiner commenced a suit in the district court of Rice county, Kansas, to enjoin the treasurer and county clerk of said county, and the city of Lyons and school district No. 69 of Rice county, Kansas, from collecting certain taxes assessed and levied on certain property of his. Part of the property charged with the taxes sought to be enjoined was situated in the original city of Lyons, part in Workman’s addition, part in White-’ addition, and a part in Purdy’s addition, commonly known as Purdyville. The separate lots or parcels of land are charged separately with the several different kinds of taxes thereon. The particular taxes sought to be enjoined consist of city of Lyons general and interest taxes, sidewalk assessments, and school-district taxes, and the penalties on all of these different taxes; Some of these taxes are alleged to be illegal for one reason, and others for different reasons.

[99]*99On the filing of the petition, duly verified, the judge of the district court, at chambers, granted a temporary restraining order. The action was afterward tried before the court without a jury, John N. Ives presiding as judge pro tem., and the collection of taxes complained of enjoined. The court was requested in writing to made special findings of fact on the issuable facts involved in the case and its conclusions of law separately. The court made findings of fact on part of the questions submitted, and refused to find the facts on other propositions submitted. The defendants below duly excepted to the refusal of the court to find the facts on certain issuable questions. The court overruled the objections of the defendants below, and entered up a judgment on such of the findings as it made and its conclusions therefrom; and the defendants below filed their motion for a new trial, which was overruled, and defendants duly excepted thereto, and made a case for the supreme court, which was duly settled and signed, and plaintiffs in error filed their petition in error with the case-made attached in the supreme court, which was duly certified to this court for review. On the conclusion of the evidence, the defendants below submitted in writing 31 questions of fact to the court, and requested findings thereon. The court took the whole case under advisement for several weeks, and afterward made what are designated as findings of fact, by the court, to part of the questions submitted, and refused to find on any of the other questions requested, and assigned as a reason for not finding on the other propositions that the findings as already made, in the opinion of the court, contained all the facts involved in the issues. The court declined to make findings submitted by the defendants’ attorney, except as included in the find[100]*100ings as made by the court. The refusal of the court to find the facts as submitted by the defendants below is the first error complained of in this court.

Section 290 of the code of civil procedure reads :

“Upon- the trial of questions of fact by the court, it shall not be necessary for the court to state its findings, except generally, for the plaintiff or defendant, unless one of the parties request it, with the view of excepting to the decision of the court upon the questions of law involved in the trial; in which case the court shall state, in writing, the conclusions of fact found, separately from the conclusions of law.”

It is a right that either party to a suit has, where the case is tried by the court without a jury, upon request, to have all or any of the issuable facts involved in the pleadings, and upon which there is any evidence, found separately from the conclusions of law based thereon, so that he may have his exceptions to the findings and conclusions; and a refusal of the court, upon a request made to find all facts submitted which are material, is error, and the facts should be found separately from the conclusions of law, so that the reviewing court may determine whether the judgment based on the facts as found is erroneous or not. It is shown in the evidence that Purdyville, which is now claimed to be a part of the city of Lyons, was originally surveyed, platted, and the plat thereof re-' corded in the office of the register of deeds of Rice county, as a town, with streets, alleys, public grounds, and divided into lots and blocks. It was claimed that the town was afterward vacated and all the property reverted to the original proprietors; and that the separate parcels or lots of land were thereby again united into one solid body of land and the title all reinvested in the owners of the lots and blocks; and that the attempt of the city of Lyons and the board [101]*101of county commissioners of Rice county to extend the limits of said city so as to include this territory was unauthorized and void, for the reason that it included more land in the area belonging to one person than could be taken in by ordinance, without the consent of the owner. The Regularity of these proceedings and the legality of the action of the officers in their attempt to make Purdyville a part of the city of Lyons were facts ; and if the necessary facts existed, and the officers followed the law in their effort to extend the limits of the city, and they were authorized to extend the boundaries of the city and take in this territory, then it became a part of the city and was subject to taxation for city purposes. The findings made by the court in the fourth finding are mixed findings of fact and conclusions of law. The court does not find the fact upon which it bases the following conclusion :

“That blocks 4 and 5 constitute one body of land, and contain about six acres of land, with a vacated street between these two blocks ; that vacated street and other lands owned by the plaintiff contained lO-J-acres, and, for the purpose of this case, there are no streets, alleys or public grounds contained within or upon said 10-J- acres.”

This statement is a mere conclusion without the facts, and the whole finding is so indefinite that it is hard to understand from the so-called finding what the court really did find as a fact, and is not a compliance with the requirements of the law, and is prej^ udicial to the rights of the defendants below.

The defendants, in their written request, ask the court, in propositions Nos. 22 to 29, both inclusive, to find the facts in relation to the plaintiff’s residence on blocks 4 and 5 in Purdyville ; whether he voted in the city of Lyons after the passage of the ordinance [102]

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
43 P. 423, 2 Kan. App. 95, 1895 Kan. App. LEXIS 220, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/seward-v-rheiner-kanctapp-1896.