Terre Haute & Indianapolis Railroad v. Baker

24 N.E. 83, 122 Ind. 433, 1890 Ind. LEXIS 110
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 12, 1890
DocketNo. 13,988
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 24 N.E. 83 (Terre Haute & Indianapolis Railroad v. Baker) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Terre Haute & Indianapolis Railroad v. Baker, 24 N.E. 83, 122 Ind. 433, 1890 Ind. LEXIS 110 (Ind. 1890).

Opinion

Coffey, J.

This was an action by the appellee against the appellant to recover for work and labor. The complaint in the cause, omitting the formal parts, is as follows:

“ John T. Baker, plaintiff, complains of the Terre Haute and Indianapolis Railroad Company, defendant, and says that the defendant is a corporation, and is indebted to the plaintiff in the sum of fifty-six and dollars for work done by plaintiff for defendant, as a section hand, during the months of February and March, 1887; that the agreement for/work and labor as alleged in this complaint was a verbal agreement, and there was no other agreement in relation to the same; that said sum is now due and unpaid; that on the 1st day of April, 1887, plaintiff demanded payment of said sum of the defendant, but the defendant refused and still refuses to pay the same; that the plaintiff has incurred an obligation in the employment of attorneys to prosecute this action in the sum of twenty-five dollars, which is a reasonable sum for attorney’s fees, and said sum is also due and unpaid. Wherefore, plaintiff prays judgment for said sum of fifty-six and dollars, the sum of twenty-five dollars for attorney’s fees, and a penalty of one dollar per day for every day said payment has been withheld, in all,.one hundred and fifty dollars.” To this complaint is attached a bill of particulars as follows:
“ Terre Haute and Indianapolis Railroad Company.
“To John T. Baker:
1887. To 51 days work on section 19, as section hand, at $1.10 per day for the months of February and March, 1887, being $56.10.”

The third paragraph of the answer to this complaint is as follows : “And for further and third paragraph of answer to plaintiff’s complaint, defendant says that it is the owner, and engaged in operating a line of railway across the State of Illinois and extending and running into the States of Indiana and Missouri; that it has a general office in the city of St. [435]*435Louis, in the State of Missouri; that on the 15th day of March, 1887; one S. W. Smelcer instituted and began a suit against said plaintiff herein, as principal, and against this defendant, as garnishee defendant, before Jeremiah Eyan, a justice of the peace in the said city of St. Louis, State of Missouri; that due process and notice was had upon this plaintiff in said suit so begun, and a writ of summons duly served upon this defendant in garnishment; that it filed its answer alleging, in substance, that at the date of the service of process upon it, it was indebted to the plaintiff herein in the sum of $36.30; that such further proceedings were had in said suit as resulted in a judgment against this defendant in garnishment for the sum of $33.40; that the said judgment in said suit was duly given and made against this defendant as garnishee; that this defendant afterwards paid the said judgment so rendered against it, and afterwards this defendant tendered to the plaintiff herein the sum of $2.90, the balance due from the defendant to plaintiff, and for which amount it now offers to confess judgment, with costs, to this date, and brings into court said sum of $2.90 and tenders the same to the defendant.”

A demurrer to this answer was overruled by the court, and appellee excepted.

The appellee then filed the following reply to said answer, viz.: “And for a second and further reply to the third paragraph of said answer, he says, that, on the 15th day of March, 1887, and for more than one year immediately preceding that day, the S. W. Smelcer, referred to in said answer, and this plaintiff were citizens of Carroll county, Indiana, residing in said county, where they have ever since resided and still reside; that, on said 15th day of March, 1887, and for a year prior thereto, plaintiff was a resident householder of Carroll county, Indiana, and had not, during any of said time, nor has he yet, property of the value of six hundred dollars ; that the pretended judgment set forth in said answer was upon a claim founded upon, or [436]*436growing out of a contract between said Smelcer and the plaintiff; that at the time said defendant filed its answer before Jeremiah Ryan, said S. W. Smelcer was doing business as a merchant at Plora, Carroll county, Indiana, and there residing as the defendant well knew; that plaintiff never consented that said Jeremiah Ryan should have jurisdiction of his person; that said Jeremiah Ryan never did have jurisdiction to render judgment against plaintiff in the action in said answer set forth, but the same, as plaintiff * * * is informed and believes, was procured by collusion between said Smelcer and the defendant to prevent plaintiff from availing himself of the exemption laws of the State of Indiana, and to prevent him from securing as against attachment proceedings wages for one month.”

The court overruled a demurrer to this reply, and the appellant excepted.

A trial of the cause resulted in a finding and judgment for the appellee, in which the court allowed the appellee the sum of $38 on account of wages, $25 on account of attorney’s fees in this cause, and $69 penalty on account of withholding payment of the claim in suit, making a total of $132.55.

The errors assigned by the appellant are :

1st. That the complaint does not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action.

2d. That the court erred in overruling the appellant’s demurrer to the second paragraph of the appellee’s reply.

3d. That the court erred in overruling the appellant’s motion for a new trial.

In view of the many intricate and important questions involved in this record, we regret that the .appellant has not seen fit to file a more elaborate brief. The only brief on file in behalf of the appellant is what is termed a supersedeas brief, in which not a single authority is cited. In this brief the appellant reserves the right to discuss, at some future time, the many questions presented by the record, but as no additional brief has been filed, we are required, under the [437]*437rules of this court, to treat as waived all questions not presented by the supersedeas brief.

No objection to the complaint is pointed out, and we discover none. The complaint states a cause of action against the appellant.

The argument on behalf of the appellant that the reply above set out was not sufficient, is met by the appellee with the contention that the answer to which it is addressed is bad, and that a bad reply is good enough for a bad answer.

It is contended by the appellee that inasmuch as a justice of the peace has no common law jurisdiction, and inasmuch as an attachment proceeding is a stranger to the common law, the answer to be good should set out some statute of the State of Missouri conferring jurisdiction on a justice of the peace in that State, and some statute authorizing a proceeding in attachment and garnishment.

Whatever merit this contention might possess, in the absence of any statute upon the subject, we think it is fully met by the provisions of section 369, R. S. 1881, which provides that “ In pleading a judgment or decision of a court or •officer of special jurisdiction, it shall be sufficient to allege, generally, that the judgment or decision was duly given or made.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
24 N.E. 83, 122 Ind. 433, 1890 Ind. LEXIS 110, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/terre-haute-indianapolis-railroad-v-baker-ind-1890.