Thompson v. Reynolds

204 P. 516, 59 Utah 416, 1922 Utah LEXIS 112
CourtUtah Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 1, 1922
DocketNo. 3712
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 204 P. 516 (Thompson v. Reynolds) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Utah Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Thompson v. Reynolds, 204 P. 516, 59 Utah 416, 1922 Utah LEXIS 112 (Utah 1922).

Opinion

CORFMAN, C. J.

This is a long-continued controversy. It had its origin in an action of unlawful detainer begun by the plaintiff March 7, 1914, in the justice court of the third precinct of Salt Lake county against the defendant Charles Reynolds alone. The defendant Charles Reynolds appeared and answered the complaint by denying plaintiff’s ownership of the premises involved and other allegations of the complaint as well, and for an affirmative defense alleged, among other things, ownership and possession of the premises in one Mary Atkinson, and also by reason of the title to real property being involved challenged the jurisdiction of the justice court to try the case. Subsequently Mary Atkinson filed a “petition in intervention,” asking that she be.made a party defendant to the action. Thereupon the cause was certified to the district court of Salt Lake county, where a trial was had upon the original complaint and the answer of defendant Reynolds without pleadings on the part of Mary Atkinson, the trial court permitting her, however, upon consent of counsel, to present her claims, both legal and equitable, upon the answer of the defendant Reynolds. The district court, upon the first trial of the case, rendered a judgment and decree quieting title in the plaintiff. An appeal was then taken to this court, and, after a review of the record, in a majority opinion (53 Utah, 437, 174 Pac. 164), it was decided, without passing upon the merits, that neither the evidence nor the aforesaid pleadings in unlawful detainer supported the judgment and decree [419]*419quieting title. It was therefore ordered that said judgment and decree be reversed, and that the cause be remanded, with directions to the district court to permit the respective parties to amend and recast their pleadings, and, when so done, to again try the case. The order of this court was complied with, and the case tried for the second time upon the pleadings as amended. In this instance plaintiff has, in his amended complaint, set forth the usual allegations of ownership, right of possession, etc., that are made in actions to quiet title to real property. An answer for the defendant Mary Atkinson was also prepared and filed, which denies both the plaintiff’s ownership and his right to possession of the premises, and pleads affirmatively ownership, possession, and right of possession in herself. She also pleads as special defenses to and as counterclaims against the plaintiff’s action certain affirmative matters, which, for the sake of brevity, may be stated to be as follows: That defendant and one William J. Atkinson, a predecessor in interest of the plaintiff, are husband and wife; that the property involved was purchased by defendant’s said husband,with funds furnished by her, and that plaintiff has acquired the same with notice and knowledge that the legal title thereto was being held by her said husband in trust for herself, and that the husband’s conveyance thereof was made in fraud of her rights therein; that defendant has acquired title to the property by adverse possession; that she has acquired title under an auditor’s deed given upon sale of the premises for delinquent takes pursuant to the statutes in such cases made and provided; that she possesses and occupies the premises by virtue of homestead rights accorded her as the wife of said William J. Atkinson under the Utah statutes; that she is the owner and holder of certain judgment liens against the premises; and, finally, that she has been denied the right of a redemp-tioner under certain foreclosure proceedings and sale of the premises to which she was not made a party. The plaintiff filed , a reply.

Upon the trial of the case the district court, after hearing the evidence, dismissed each and all of defendant’s counter[420]*420claims, and found for and quieted the title to the premises in the plaintiff, subject, however, to a contingent one-third interest in the defendant Mary Atkinson' should she survive her said husband William J. Atkinson. It was further ordered that a -writ of possession issue out of said court, commanding the sheriff of Salt Lake county to put the plaintiff in possession of said premises and the whole thereof. The rights of Charles Reynolds are affected only'as the tenant of Mrs. Atkinson.

Defendants appeal.- Numerous alleged errors are assigned by defendants as grounds for reversal of ,the judgment. They in effect challenge the sufficiency of the evidence to support the findings, and allege that the court’s conclusions and judgment are contrary to law; that under the pleadings and the evidence in the case the trial court should have found against the plaintiff and for the defendants upon their several counterclaims. It is also urged that the district court erred in refusing to grant the defendants’ motion to strike the plaintiff’s amended complaint upon the ground that it changed the cause of action from one of unlawful detainer to an action to quiet title.

At the outset plaintiff has moved to dismiss the appeal and also to strike the defendants’ bill of exceptions upon the grounds that they were not filed within the time required by our statutes and the rules of this court. As to- the motion to dismiss the appeal the record shows that findings of fact, conclusions of law, and the decree were signed by the trial judge May 19, 1921, and filed in the district court May 20, 1921; on the application of the defendants, May 21, 1921, an order was made by said court extending the time within which to prepare, serve, settle, and file the bill of exceptions to July 30, 1921; July 30, 1921, upon application of the defendants, a similar order was made by the district court, extending the time to September 1, 1921; August 27, 1921, the order was made settling a bill of exceptions in which a transcript of the record was incorporated and made a part, and the same filed in this court August 31, 1921. Comp. Laws Utah 1917, § 6992, provides:

[421]*421“The judgment roll and bill of exceptions, if there be one, shall constitute the record on appeal to the Supreme Court.”

Section 7009, supra, provides:

“If the appellant shall fail to cause such papers (judgment roll and bill of exceptions) to be transmitted and filed in the Supreme Court within thirty days after the perfecting of the appeal, the appeal may be dismissed on motion of the respondent.”

Rules 2 and 3 of this court are to the same effect, with the proviso, however, that the appellant may secure extensions of time. In this case the “record on appeal” included a bill of exceptions containing a transcript of the record, and it necessarily follows that if the time was properly 1 extended to September 1, 3921, within which to pre- ' pare, serve, and file a bill of exceptions, then the ‘ ‘ record on appeal” was filed in time. That is to say, that the appeal could not be perfected in this instance without a bill of exceptions, and therefore if the time for filing the bill of exceptions was properly extended by the court, then the record on appeal, of which it was made a part, was filed in this court in time.

The plaintiff points out that the first extension of time given to prepare, serve, and file a bill of exceptions was to July 30, 1921, and therefore he contends that the further extension attempted to be given by the district court on July 30, 1921, was one day too late. In other words, it is argued by the plaintiff that the preposition “to” as used by the court in the first order extending time was a word of exclusion, and not of inclusion of the date mentioned, July 30, 1921.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Wilshire Construction Co. v. Union Electric Co.
463 S.W.2d 903 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1971)
Glenwood Irrigation Co. v. Myers
465 P.2d 1013 (Utah Supreme Court, 1970)
London Clothes, Ltd. v. Maryland Casualty Co.
63 N.E.2d 577 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1945)
Deibert v. Kulp
45 Pa. D. & C. 413 (Columbia County Court of Common Pleas, 1942)
Helper State Bank v. Crus
81 P.2d 359 (Utah Supreme Court, 1938)
State v. Marasco
17 P.2d 919 (Utah Supreme Court, 1933)
Schvaneveldt v. Clegg
280 P. 230 (Utah Supreme Court, 1929)
Utah State Nat. Bank v. Livingston.
280 P. 327 (Utah Supreme Court, 1929)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
204 P. 516, 59 Utah 416, 1922 Utah LEXIS 112, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/thompson-v-reynolds-utah-1922.