Sweet v. Myers

53 N.W. 187, 3 S.D. 324, 1892 S.D. LEXIS 77
South Dakota Supreme Court·Decided October 15, 1892·Published·Cited by 6 cases

Opinion

Kellam, P. J.

This action was brought by respondents to recover possession of certain property claimed to be personal, and withheld by the appellants. They recovered judgment on trial by the court below, and the defendants have appealed. The respondents move to dismiss the appeal because no bill of exceptions was settled in the case. This would not be ground for dismissal, but does, we think, confine the review in this court to questions appearing upon the judgment roll proper. The printed abstract recites that the parties agreed upon the facts embodied therein in a stipulation, and submitted the case to the court for trial and decision upon such stipulation, and then purports to set out the facts so stipulated. The appellants insist that no bill of exceptions was necessary, for the parties have formally agreed to the facts; no finding of the trial judge could change them; that a bill, if settled, would exhibit the very facts recited in the affidavit, and no other. Such result would very likely follow, if it were once properly established in this court that the parties did make a stipulation below, agreeing upon the facts' stated. But suppose either the making of the stipulation, or that its contents were correctly set out, was denied, how could either be made to appear in [327] this court without having been proved and made record by bill of exceptions? The appellate function of this court is to review the decisions of the trial court. To do this fairly to the trial court, the record here must be just the same as it was there. The judge whose decisions are tobe reviewed is interested in it, and is entitled to know what is to be presented to the appellate court as the record upon which his challenged rulings were made. We .presume it not infrequently happens in the trial of a case that some particular fact or facts which influenced the ruling of a judge may not seem important to the appealing party, and in such case he would be likely to omit the evidence of such fact if he were allowed ta make a statement of the evidence upon which the ruling was made This would be unfair to the trial judge. And so in Lumber Co. v. Pennington, 2 Dak. 472, 11 N. W. Rep. 497, Chief Justice Shannon said: “The object in settling a bill is to arrive- at accuracy, and this as well in justice towards the court that tried the cause as to the suitors.”

In Raymond v. Spicer, 6 Dak. 45, 50 N. W. Rep. 399, it was held by the territorial supreme court that it was not competent for the parties after trial to stipulate what should be considered a bill of exceptions or statement, and that such stipulation would not be accepted as record by the appellate court, unless properly signed by the judge. As this was but a memorandum opinion, we notice further that in Leonard v. Warriner, 20 Wis. 41, the court said: “There is no bill of exceptions in this case. There is what the attorneys for the respective parties have stipulated should be a bill of exceptions, and of the same force and effect as if settled and signed by the circuit judge; but it is not signed by the judge. We cannot permit the stipulation of the attorneys to take the place of or do away with the necessity of such signing by the judge. They may stipulate into the record, if this was permitted, rulings or instructions that were never made or given, and which would make the circuit judge appear ridiculous.”

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Sweet v. Myers, 53 N.W. 187, 3 S.D. 324, 1892 S.D. LEXIS 77 (S.D. 1892).

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