Syndicate Improvement Co. v. Bradley

43 P. 79, 6 Wyo. 171, 1896 Wyo. LEXIS 4
CourtWyoming Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 8, 1896
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 43 P. 79 (Syndicate Improvement Co. v. Bradley) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wyoming Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Syndicate Improvement Co. v. Bradley, 43 P. 79, 6 Wyo. 171, 1896 Wyo. LEXIS 4 (Wyo. 1896).

Opinion

GROesbecK, Chief Justice.

The plaintiff in error seeks a reversal of the judgment of the trial court in favor of the defendant in error. He assigns six- grounds of error: (1) that the trial court erred in overruling a motion made by the plaintiff in error to dissolve the attachment; (2) that the court erred in overruling the motion of the plaintiff in error for a change of judge; (3) that the court erred in refusing the demand of plaintiff in error for a jury trial; (4) that the cause was called for trial and tried without notice to the plaintiff in error; (5) that judgment was rendered for the plaintiff below when it should have been rendered for the defendant; and (6) that the judgment was rendered on a trial without notice to the defendant.

1. The action of the trial court in sustaining the attachment can not be reviewed. There is no bill of exceptions containing the evidence produced upon the hearing of the motion to dissolve. The affidavits, motions, and other papers in the attachment proceedings are attempted to be brought into the record by copies thereof certified to by the clerk of the court, but as such matters are not part of the record proper, they can only be made a part of the record by a bill of exceptions. It does not appear that the affidavits contain all of the evidence adduced at the hearing of the motion to dissolve the attachment, and it must appear that all of the evidence is before us that was before the court or judge hearing such motion. An exception was taken to the ruling of the court sustaining the attachment, but no time was asked or allowed within which to prepare and present to the court or its judge in vacation a bill of exceptions, and no bill is in the record. There is no proper record before us, and all the alleged errors are waived by the failure to preserve the exceptions by asking and obtaining time for the preparation and presentation of the bill. Smith Drug Co. v. Casper Drug Co., 40 Pac., 979. (5 Wyo. 510.) Counsel for plaintiff in error abandons this assignment of error by making no [178]*178reference to it in bis brief, and it would not have been considered if he had not waived it.

2. The motion and affidavit for a change of judge were filed during the progress of the trial, after a witness had testified, and too late to be considered. The motion was overruled by the court and no exception was taken to the ruling. The error, if any, was therefore waived. The motion and affidavit for change of judge are not incorporated in a bill of exceptions where they properly belong.

3. A demand for a jury trial was made after a witness for the plaintiff had testified. No such demand was made when the docket was formally called at the first day of the term, as the statute required, the record stating that upon such call of the docket, the attorney for the defendant waived a jury trial by not then demanding the same and depositing the jury fee as provided by statute. No exception was taken to the ruling of the court denying the motion for a jury trial. The party asking a jury trial must cause the record to show a due' request therefor, a refusal by the court and an exception, for in the absence of countervailing facts, it must be assumed that the court did not usurp the functions of the jury. Elliott’s App. Proc., Sec. 612. It is evident that this assignment of error is unavailing. Further, the matter was not properly raised on a motion for a new trial, as required by the rules and repeated decisions of this court.

4. It is insisted that the cause was called for trial, tried, and judgment was rendered on a trial without notice to the defendant. The record does not bear out this contention. It does show that there was a genéral appearance of the defendant below by answer and upon motions, and that a special appearance, as it is designated, was made by the attorney for the defendant. This ‘ ‘ special appearance ’ ’ was in writing, and should have been incorporated in a bill of exceptions instead of being certified to by the clerk. But considering it, as we have no right to do, it attempts to show that the trial court was without juris[179]*179diction because a change of judge bad been previously granted by the court, an assertion not borne out by the record. It does not even suggest that the cause was on trial without notice to the defendant, and nowhere in the record does it appear that complaint was made that the defendant had not been notified of the time of trial. The record affirmatively shows the presence of the defendant by counsel during a portion of the trial, when the demand for a jury trial was made, and a motion for a change of judge was offered, and when the so-called special appearance was entered, and the record does not negative the fact that the defendant was present by attorney at other times during the trial. The journal entries of the court, it is true, do not show that the cause was ever set down for hearing, but it may have been that the clerk of the court on the first day of the term made up the trial docket, and set down the cause for trial on the day on which, and at the time when, it was tried. The cause was triable at the term when it was heard and determined, as the issues had been made up long before the beginning of the term, and under the statute, it was the duty of the clerk to enter the cause on the trial docket and set down the cause for trial. Sections 2519, 2522, Rev. Stat. Wyo., as amended by Ch. 39, Sess. Laws 1895. The presumption is that the clerk performed this duty imposed upon him by statute, and that the parties and their attorneys had due notice from this trial docket that the cause would be tried at the time fixed therein by the clerk, as the trial docket is a public record provided by law, of the contents of which attorneys and litigants are bound to take notice. Moreover, in the absence of anything appearing to the contrary, the presumption is that the cause was regularly tried and properly disposed of during the term and at the appointed time, of which all parties thereto had notice. But no objection was raised at any time, while the cause was pending or during the progress of the trial, or after it, before the trial court, although there was an appearance by answer, and also during a por[180]*180tion of the trial, at least, by the attorney for the defendant. The objection to the judgment because it was rendered and the trial had without notice to the defendant is raised for the first time in this court. Affirmative error must appear in the proceedings of a court of superior general jurisdiction, and can not be imputed, as every presumption is in favor of the regularity of its proceedings, which import absolute verity. For- aught that appears in the record before us, the defendant, through his attorney, had full knowledge ánd notice of the setting of the cause for trial, and of the time of trial, and there is nothing to show that the attorney for the defendant was not present during the whole trial. The rendering of judgment before the action stood for trial according to the provisions of law, and the rules of the court shall be deemed a clerical error. Rev. Stat., Sec. 3147. It must be- so regarded unless it appears from the record, either by the journal of the court or by bill of exceptions, made a part of the record, that the party complaining had no notice or knowledge of the time of trial. But the presumption is from the record, from the absence of anything to the contrary, and from the silence of the defendant when it should have spoken, that the cause was heard and determined, upon due notice to the defendant.

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Bluebook (online)
43 P. 79, 6 Wyo. 171, 1896 Wyo. LEXIS 4, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/syndicate-improvement-co-v-bradley-wyo-1896.