Spargur v. Prentiss

92 N.W. 300, 66 Neb. 222, 1902 Neb. LEXIS 420
CourtNebraska Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 6, 1902
DocketNo. 11,921
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 92 N.W. 300 (Spargur v. Prentiss) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Nebraska Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Spargur v. Prentiss, 92 N.W. 300, 66 Neb. 222, 1902 Neb. LEXIS 420 (Neb. 1902).

Opinion

Kirkpatrick, 0.

This is a suit in equity brought in the district court for Dawes county by John H. Prentiss and others (who were at the date of the commencement of the suit a corporation organized in Chicago, Illinois, under the name of Charles P. Kellogg &• Company) against Rynard E. W. Spargur, George W. Fisher and Allen G. Fisher, to procure the cancelation of a judgment theretofore rendered in Dawes county. It is disclosed by the petition that in January, 1891, plaintiff in error Spargur was engaged in the mercantile business in Chadron, Dawes’county; that at that [223]*223time lie was indebted to Charles P. Kellogg & Co., in the snm of $335.67. Abont that time Kellogg & Co., ascertained that Spargur bad executed chattel mortgages upon his stock of goods in the snm of $21,000, and. thereupon they telegraphed to an attorney located at Chadron to institute suit on their account, which he did in the county court, and procured an order of attachment to be issued, which, however, was never served. The attorney telegraphed to defendants in error to furnish an attachment bond, and they promptly notified him that they would not furnish the bond, and directed him immediately to dismiss his attachment, which he did. Soon thereafter Sparger filed a counter-claim in the county court, claiming damages in the sum of $400 against Charles P. Kellogg & Co. on account of goods sold him, which he claimed were not of the quality and value agreed upon. Trial was had in the county court, which resulted in a judgment being entered in favor of Charles P. Kellogg & Co., and against Spargur in the sum of $166.70; the amount due them having been reduced to that amount on account of the counter-claim of Spargur. From this judgment plaintiffs appealed to the district court, where issues were made up apparently of the same character as those in the county court. About this time the attorney who represented Charles P. Kellogg & Co. in the county court was elected district judge of the district, and was thus disqualified to try the cause. The cause seems to have stood upon the docket and to have been passed from time to time until the March term of 1897, after which it was dropped from the trial and bar docket. In the meantime another judge had been elected to succeed Judge Bartow, who was counsel for defendants in error; and he, as well as other counsel selected by him to look after the interests of defendants in error, had removed from the state. It is further disclosed that at the March term of the district court in 1898, Allen G. Fisher, attorney for Spargur, who in the meantime had also left the state, procured the cause to be again entered upon the docket, and thereafter substituted what were claimed to [224]*224be copies of tbe pleadings, all of which was done by leave of court, but without notice to defendants in error, and apparently at an adjourned sitting of the same term, and on July 20, 1898, on his own testimony, procured to be entered by the district court against the individual members of the firm of Charles P. Kellogg & Co., a judgment in the sum of $8,'735.70, and on the same day filed an attorney’s lien for the full amount. The items in the answer and counter-claim, of Spargur upon which the judgment was procured are as follows: For damages for failure to credit certain amounts, $23.70; overcharge on goods, $800; damages for delay, $500; damages for attachment, $10,-000; total, $11,323.70. It is further disclosed by the petition that after the entry of the judgment in the.county court, and before the canse was tried in the district court, William H. Kellogg, a member of the firm, and one of the parties against whom the judgment was rendered, died. This fact was not brought to the attention of the district court, and no proceedings were had to revive the action. As disclosed by the petition, Charles P. Kellogg & Co. had no knowledge of any of these proceedings taken in 1898, nor until June, 1899, when a transcript of the judgment was sent to Chicago, and placed in the hands of attorneys for collection. Defendants in error thereupon instituted this suit in equity by the filing of their petition, making R. -E. W. Spargur, George W. Fisher, an assignee of the judgment, and Allen G. Fisher, attorney for Spargur, who had filed the attorney’s lien, defendants. An answer was filed by plaintiffs in error, to which for reply was filed by defendants in error a general denial. The cause was tried to the district court, the trial on the 1st day of March, 1900, resulting in findings and a decree reducing the amount of the. judgment which had been entered in favor of Spargur and against defendants in error to the sum of $1,000. From this judgment- plaintiffs in error Spargur and Fisher bring the cause to this court for review. The bill of exceptions by which the evidence taken in the case and heard by the trial court was preserved has [225]*225been suppressed by order of this court, so that the only question involved is whether the judgment conforms to the pleadings, and is sustained by the findings of the trial court. The material findings of the trial court are as follows :

“8. That said judgment rendered by said court was rendered upon a counter-claim filed in said court by said defendant Spargur, and that said counter-claim and judgment was for a greater sum than that filed by him in the county court.
“10. The court finds that the defendant herein, R. E. W. Spargur, and Allen G. Fisher, acted in good faith in procuring said judgment.
“12. The court finds that plaintiffs herein were grossly negligent in the prosecution of their action against Spar-gur, in the district court, and in abandoning said action therein, and that they are not entitled to any relief in this action except upon the question of jurisdiction.
“13. The court finds that as a matter of law in this case, and from all the evidence and circumstances .proved therein, that the district court of Dawes county had jurisdiction in said cause and authority to render judgment therein for the sum of $1,000; and the court further finds that as to the matters and claims in excess of the jurisdiction of said county court the district court had no greater jurisdiction than the county court from which said action was appealed.
“14. The court finds that said judgment should be modified and reduced, so that the amount of said judgment should be for $1,000, instead of a judgment for the sum of $8,735.70.
“16. The court further finds from the evidence that the attention of the district court was not called to the question of jurisdiction at the trial of said cause in said court, and that said question was not passed upon or decided by said court.’’

This presents for determination the single question whether the trial court erred in its conclusion that the [226]*226district court liad no jurisdiction to enter judgment on the counter-claim of Spargur in an amount in excess of the jurisdiction of the county court from which the cause liad been appealed. The question at issue seems to have been settled by this court adversely to the contention of plaintiffs in error. In Union P. R. Co. v. Ogilvy, 18 Nebr., 638, it was said: “Where an action was brought in the co.unty court to recover $990, and on appeal to the district court the petition was amended to claim $1,380, and judgment rendered for that sum, held

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
92 N.W. 300, 66 Neb. 222, 1902 Neb. LEXIS 420, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/spargur-v-prentiss-neb-1902.