State ex rel. Sorensen v. State Bank

267 N.W. 532, 131 Neb. 223, 1936 Neb. LEXIS 207
CourtNebraska Supreme Court
DecidedJune 12, 1936
DocketNo. 29611
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 267 N.W. 532 (State ex rel. Sorensen v. State Bank) 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
State ex rel. Sorensen v. State Bank, 267 N.W. 532, 131 Neb. 223, 1936 Neb. LEXIS 207 (Neb. 1936).

Opinion

Eberly, J.

In a proceeding instituted by the attorney general of this state, in the district court for Douglas county, under our banking act, having for its purpose the winding up of the affairs of the State Bank of Omaha, an insolvent institution, George S. Van Schaick, superintendent of insurance of the state of New York, filed a petition of intervention challenging the claim of E. H. Luikart, receiver of the Verdigre State Bank of Verdigre, Ne[224]*224braska, to certain dividends claimed by him arising out of the State Bank of Omaha, and due to the National Surety Company of New York. The prayer of the petition of intervention included the following: “That intervener as superintendent of insurance of the state of New York in behalf of himself and National Surety Company be adjudged and decreed to be entitled to all dividends declared on the claims of the National Surety Company heretofore filed herein and adjudicated by the order of this court made on January 2, 1935.”

To this, E. H. Luikart as receiver of the Verdigre State Bank, filed his “answer.” It is made up of 26 numbered paragraphs, together with exhibits attached to this pleading, which in all comprise 201 pages of the typewritten transcript on appeal filed in this court.

To this pleading, intervener George S. Van Schaick, superintendent of insurance of the state of New York, filed his motion to strike parts of the answer of E. H. Luikart, for reasons stated therein. This motion to strike was made up of 35 paragraphs and excepted from its scope the first paragraph of the answer and the prayer thereof.

Thereafter, on April 25, 1935, after due hearing, an order was duly entered in this cause by the district court for Douglas county sustaining this motion to strike and setting forth: “It is by the court ordered that said motion be, and the same hereby is, sustained m toto, and said E. H. Luikart as said -receiver, excepts.”

It will be remembered that the first paragraph of the answer to intervener’s petition was in no manner affected by the sustaining of this motion to strike. Such first paragraph admits paragraph one of said petition of intervention; admits that on June 1, 1934, an order, a copy of which is attached to said petition of intervention as exhibit 1, was professed to be entered in the supreme court of the state and county of New York; and admits that exhibit 2, attached to said petition of intervention, is a correct copy of article XI, chapter 191 of the Laws [225]*225of New York; and denies each and every other allegation in said petition of intervention contained. There also remains wholly unaffected by this order of the district court for Douglas county the prayer for relief forming a part of Luikart’s answer.

Notwithstanding the effect of the motion thus sustained, issues were actually joined and the cause is still pending in the district court for Douglas county. The record now before us discloses no final order making any disposition of such cause. But from the order of the district court for Douglas county sustaining this motion to strike, Luikart, as receiver, endeavors to appeal to this court.

The preliminary, and, in this case, final question presented to this tribunal on appeal is: Does the record disclose an appealable order, a final order, as defined by our Code?

In argument, the appellant insists that the motion to strike is to be considered as a general demurrer to the several parts of his pleading stricken by the sustaining thereof. In view of the fact that even if this contention were true it would not afford a basis for relief, we will merely suggest that it would seem, in consideration of the actual situation, that this contention involves obvious inaccuracy in the use of language, in view of what the record actually presents.

The decision of this court in Welch v. Calhoun, 22 Neb. 166, 34 N. W. 348, is controlling in the instant case. In the Welch case the district court had sustained a motion “to strike the amended petition from the files.” Plaintiff sought a review of this order. In this court, appellee moved to dismiss on the ground that there was no final order or judgment rendered in the district court upon which a proceeding in error could be predicated. Reese, J., delivered the opinion of the court, sustaining this motion to dismiss the appeal. From this opinion, announced by this court in the July term, 1887, almost a half century ago, we quote:

[226]*226“Section 582 of the Civil Code provides that, ‘A judgment rendered or final order made by the district court may be reversed, vacated, or modified by the supreme court, for errors appearing on the record.’
“By section 581 a final order is defined to be £an order affecting a substantial right in ah action, when such order in effect determines the action and prevents a judgment, and an order affecting a substantial right made in a special proceeding, or upon a summary application in an action after judgment.’
“It is apparent that under this definition the order of the district court sustaining the motion to strike the amended petition from the files was not an order, which, in effect, determined the action and prevented a judgment. So far as is shown by the record — this order being the last one entered — no final order has been made and the cause is yet upon the docket of the district court for determination.
“Plaintiff in error has cited two cases from the supreme court of Michigan (Webster v. Hitchcock, 11 Mich. 56; McMann v. Westcott, 47 Id., 177), in which it is held that such an order as the one made in the case at bar is final, and can be reviewed on error. But we have failed to find any statutory enactment in that state by which a final order is defined, as in this. And did one exist, we should feel bound by the decision of this court, by which the law of the state is fully settled, and, we think, correctly. See Daniels v. Tibbets, 16 Neb. 666; Artman v. West Point Mfg. Co., 16 Neb. 572; Nichols, Shepard & Co. v. Hail, 5 Neb. 194; Aspinwall v. Aspinwall, 18 Neb. 463.”

Sections 581 and 582 of the Civil Code, quoted from in the Welch opinion, now appear as sections 20-1902 and 20-1911, Comp. St. 1929. They have not been amended, ñor has the construction thereof varied from that announced in the cited case. Nor would appellant be entitled to greater consideration if the motion to strike were considered as a general demurrer.

“Where a demurrer to a petition is sustained in the [227]*227court below, to authorize a review of the case by the supreme court, there must be a final judgment dismissing the case.” Miller v. Burlington & M. R. R. Co., 7 Neb. 227. See, also, Scofield v. State Nat. Bank of Lincoln, 8 Neb. 16; Shedenhelm v. Shedenhelm, 21 Neb. 387, 32 N. W. 170; School District v. Cooper, 29 Neb. 433, 45 N. W. 618; Larson v. Sloan, 77 Neb. 438, 109 N. W. 752; Huffman v. Rhodes, 72 Neb. 57, 100 N. W. 159; Bartels v. Sonnenschein, 54 Neb. 68, 74 N. W. 417; Whitney v. Spearman, 50 Neb. 617, 70 N. W. 240; Yager v. Lemp, 39 Neb. 93, 58 N. W. 285.

No order of dismissal or final disposition of the instant case is shown in the transcript before us.

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Bluebook (online)
267 N.W. 532, 131 Neb. 223, 1936 Neb. LEXIS 207, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-sorensen-v-state-bank-neb-1936.