Wagner v. Home Savings & Loan Ass'n

5 N.E.2d 137, 103 Ind. App. 32, 1936 Ind. App. LEXIS 165
Indiana Court of Appeals·Decided December 15, 1936·No. No. 15,290.·Published

Opinion

Laymon, J.

On January 11, 1935, appellees entered their special appearance and filed their motion to dismiss this appeal, alleging therein that this is an attempted vacation appeal from a judgment rendered in the Cass Circuit Court on the 13th day of November, 1933, wherein Mabel Grove (appellee) was plaintiff *33 and Home Savings & Loan Association of Peru (appellee), Gordon Weller, and Dent H. Wagner (appellants) were defendants. Said judgment was in favor of the plaintiff (Mabel Grove) against said defendants. That thereafter, on the 26th day of May, 1934, the appellees, Mabel Grove and Home Savings & Loan Association, acknowledged service of the following notice:

“In the Appellate Court of Indiana
January Term, 1934
Home Savings & Loan Association ' Gordon Weller Dent H. Wagner Appellants vs. Notice Mabel Grove Appellee
You are hereby notified that we hereby appeal to the Appellate Court of Indiana, from the judgment rendered in favor of Mabel Grove against Home Savings & Loan Association of Peru, Indiana, Dent H. Wagner and Gordon Weller on the 13th day of November, 1933, by the Cass Circuit Court in Cause No. 22450 entitled Mabel Grove vs. Home Savings & Loan Association et al.
Gordon Weller
Dent H. Wagner
‘Piled June 18, 1934
Fred B. Pickett, Clerk.’
Peru, Indiana
May 26, 1934
We hereby acknowledge service of the above and foregoing notice this 26th day of May, 1934.
Geo. B. Fisher,
Clerk of Miami Circuit Court.
Sylvester Kelly,
Clerk of Cass Circuit Court.
Home Savings & Loan Association
By C. Y. Andrews, Atty.
Rhodes & Callaway, Attys.
for Mabel Grove.”

*34 That appellees relied on said, notice and believed the same to express the true intent and purpose of- thé appealing parties; that appellees did make inquiry from time to time at the office of the clerk of the Appellate Court after a period of sixty days from the date of the service of said notice and continuing thereafter for a period of one hundred eighty days but were unable to find on the Appellate Court dockets the case “which the clerk of said court could identify as the appeal designated in said notice” and that appellees believed that no appeal had beefi perfected; that appellees did not learn until the December calendar, 1935, of the Appellate Court was issued that an appeal had been perfected and was pending in said court entitled “Dent H. Wagner, Gordon Weller vs. Home Savings & Loan Association of Peru, Mabel Grove”; that upon examination of the records, the appellees discovered that the transcript of the record, together with an assignment of errors, had been filed on the 18th day of June, 1934, and that the cause had been submitted on the 18th day of July, 1934, and that the appellants had filed their brief on the 8th day of September, 1934, and that the time had expired when, by the rules of said court, the appellees could file their answer brief.

Appellees contend that said appeal should be dismissed for the reasons, first, that no statutory notice of a vacation appeal was given in this cause; second, that the notice, by the transposing of the names of the parties in the caption, misinformed appellees as to the title by which said appeal would be made and misled appellees in ascertaining whether an appeal had been taken, thereby depriving the appellees of their right to appear and file an answer brief within the time permitted by the rules.

On January 21, 1935, appellees’ motion to dismiss the appeal was continued until final hearing, and ap *35 pellees were given leave to file their answer brief on or before February 22, 1935.

In disposing of this motion to dismiss the appeal, it is evident that the appellees were not harmed by their inability to find the cause docketed in the clerk’s office and thereby deprived of filing their answer brief within the time permitted by the rules for the reason that this court, on the 21st of January, 1935, granted appellees leave to file their answer brief on or before February 22, 1935. The mere fact that one who ought to be an appellee was named as an appellant in the caption of the notice would not invalidate the notice, as there is nothing in the statute which requires an appellant to describe particularly the names of the appellants and appellees in the caption of the notice to be given in a vacation appeal. The body of the notice which was served at the instance of the appellants, Gordon Weller and Dent H. Wagner, the service of which was acknowledged by appellees, Home Savings & Loan Association and Mabel Grove, sufficiently apprised appellees of the action which appellants had taken and was a substantial compliance with the statute.

The motion to dismiss the appeal is overruled.

The appellees have not favored us with an answer brief upon the merits.

Appellee’s (Mabel Grove, plaintiff below) action, pleaded in two paragraphs, sought recovery of $1,050 for money had and received for her use and benefit against the appellee, Home Savings & Loan Association, and made appellants Dent H. Wagner and Gordon Weller, parties thereto, as claiming some interest therein. The appellee Home Savings & Loan Association and the appellants, Gordon Weller and Dent H. Wagner, filed their separate answers to appellee’s complaint. It is unnecessary to set out the substance of these pleadings, except to say that they pre *36 sent the sole issue as to who was entitled to the money-held by the appellee, the Home Savings & Loan Association. There was a trial before the court which resulted in a finding and judgment for the appellee Mabel Grove against the appellee Home Savings & Loan Association in the sum of $1,128.96 and that the appellants, Dent H. Wagner and Gordon Weller, should take nothing. The appellants filed a motion for a new trial which was overruled and jointly and severally assign as error the overruling of their motion for a new trial, which motion recites: (a) that there was error in the assessment of the amount of recovery, in that the amount was too large; (b) that the decision of the court is not sustained by sufficient evidence; (c) that the decision of the court is contrary to law. The evidence in brief discloses: That appellee Mabel Grove and appellant Dent H.

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Wagner v. Home Savings & Loan Ass'n, 5 N.E.2d 137, 103 Ind. App. 32, 1936 Ind. App. LEXIS 165 (Ind. Ct. App. 1936).

5 N.E.2d 137 (Wagner v. Home Savings & Loan Ass'n) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.