State ex rel. Mental Health Commissioner v. Estate of Heithecker

333 N.E.2d 308, 165 Ind. App. 613, 1975 Ind. App. LEXIS 1294
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedSeptember 5, 1975
DocketNo. 1-375A55
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 333 N.E.2d 308 (State ex rel. Mental Health Commissioner v. Estate of Heithecker) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State ex rel. Mental Health Commissioner v. Estate of Heithecker, 333 N.E.2d 308, 165 Ind. App. 613, 1975 Ind. App. LEXIS 1294 (Ind. Ct. App. 1975).

Opinion

Per Curiam

This cause is pending before the Court on the motion of the appellee to Dismiss or Affirm Judgment, the principal allegation of which is that there is a fatal defect in the Motion to Correct errors by omitting to name the personal representative of the deceased as a party appellee. In support of this contention appellee cites two cases, both of which were decided before the effective date of our present rules of procedure, and only one of which held that under former Supreme Court Rule 2-6 it was a fatal defect in the appeal not to name all parties to the judgment in the Assignment of Errors.1

It is true that over the course of many years the Courts were strict in the application of the rule requiring that all parties to the judgment must be named as parties in the assignment of errors, and that failure to do so resulted in dismissal of the appeal.2

In 1961 the strict enforcement of that rule began to crumble. In the case of Jasper & Chicago Motor Express, Inc. v. Ziffrin Truck Lines, Inc. (1961), 241 Ind. 643, 175 N.E.2d 20, the Supreme Court on Petition to Transfer stated it disapproved the statement in the opinion of the Appellate Court to the effect that failure to name a party in the assignment of errors is jurisdictional. However, transfer was denied because after the defect in the assignment of errors was brought to appellant’s attention no attempt was made to amend.

In the case of Haney v. Estate of Denny (1962), 135 Ind. App. 317, 183 N.E.2d 346 a Motion to Dismiss was filed alleging that the executrix of the estate of Noble F. Denny, deceased, was not named nor made a party appellee in the assignment of errors. The Court discussed at length the [615]*615evolution of the degree of enforcement of former Supreme Court Rule 2-6 culminating in Jasper & Chicago Motor Express, Inc. v. Ziffrin Truck Lines, Inc., supra, noted that the appellant had filed a Motion to Amend the assignment of errors promptly after appellee’s motion to dismiss was filed, granted leave to amend the assignment of errors and denied the Motion to Dismiss.

In the case of In re Sanitary Sewer, etc. (1968), 251 Ind. 140, 289 N.E.2d 702, the Appellate Court dismissed the appeal because there were no parties named in the assignment of errors. On Petition to Transfer, the Supreme Court concluded the Appeal should be reinstated and the petitioners should be given an opportunity to amend their assignment of errors to conform to Rule 2-6.

Thus it can be seen that even without the adoption of our present rules of procedure, it would not have been a fatal defect in this case to fail to name the personal representative of the decedent’s estate as a party in the caption of the assignment of errors. Now, of course, under our present rules of procedure in all appeals from a final judgment, the motion to correct errors shall constitute for all purposes the assignment of errors.3 Our present rule TR. 59 differs greatly from former Supreme Court Rule 2-6 which prescribed the title, context and positioning of the assignment of errors. In fact, the opening sentence of Rule TR. 59 demonstrates the difference between the two rules on the point of controversy raised by the appellee’s motion to dismiss in this case:

“The Court upon its own motion or the motion of any of the parties for or against all or any of the parties . . .” (Emphasis supplied.)

However, Rule AP. 2(B) provides that all parties of record in the trial court shall be parties on appeal. (Presumably without regard as to whether a motion to correct errors was filed as to all parties.) Therefore the failure to name all par[616]*616ties in the caption of the motion to correct errors is of no consequence in determining the parties to the appeal. Parties to the action in the trial court are parties to the appeal whether named or not, by reason of Rule AP. 2(B).

This brings us to the question of whether the personal representative of the Estate of Vera E. Heithecker, deceased, was a party to the proceedings in the trial court. The record reveals that on November 10, 1972, the State of Indiana, on the relation of William Ellsworth Murray, M.D., Mental Health Commissioner, filed in the Vigo Circuit Court a claim against the Estate of Vera E. Heithecker, deceased, which claim was disallowed the same day. Thereafter, the administrator with the will annexed of the estate filed an answer to the claim together with a request for trial of the claim by jury.

The several statutes pertaining to claims in decedent’s estates provide in part as follows:

IC 1971, 29-1-14-10 (Burns Code Ed.)

“Claims, allowance, transfer, trial.— (a) On or before six [6] months and fifteen [15] days after the date of the first published notice to creditors, the personal representative shall allow or disallow each claim filed within six [6] months after the date of the first published notice to creditors by making appropriate notations on the margin of the claim and allowance docket showing the action taken as to each claim. If a personal representative determines that he should not allow any claim in full such claim shall be noted ‘disallowed.’ All claims which are disallowed, or which are neither allowed or disallowed within said period of six [6] months and fifteen [15] days, shall be transferred at once to the issue docket for trial and if the court, upon hearing, allows, in full, a claim which was neither allowed or disallowed by the personal representative the costs of such action shall be taxed against the personal representative as an individual . . .”

IC 1971, 29-1-14-12 (Burns Code Ed.)

“Transfer for trial — Pleadings—Joint obligor made party —Default of claimant.— (a) When any claim is transferred for trial, it shall not be necessary for the personal representative to plead any matter by way of answer, except a set-off or counter-claim, to which the plaintiff shall [617]*617reply. If the personal representative pleads any other matter by way of defense, the claimant shall reply thereto; the sufficiency of the statement of the claim, or any subsequent pleading, may be tested by demurrer, and if objection be made that the assignor of a claim not assigned by indorsement is not a party to the action, leave shall be given the claimant to amend by making him a party to answer to his interest in the claim and to sue out process against the assignor to answer in that behalf. And if it shall be shown to the court that any person is bound with the decedent in any contract which is the foundation of the claim, the court shall direct that the claim be amended by making such person a defendant in the action, and process shall be issued against and served upon him, and thereafter the action shall be prosecuted against him as a codefendant with such personal representative and judgment shall be rendered accordingly. . . .” (Emphasis supplied.)

IC 1971, 29-1-14-13 (Burns Code Ed.)

“Trial and judgment. — The trial of such claims shall be conducted as in ordinary civil cases, and if the finding be for the claimant

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
333 N.E.2d 308, 165 Ind. App. 613, 1975 Ind. App. LEXIS 1294, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-mental-health-commissioner-v-estate-of-heithecker-indctapp-1975.