Williams v. Silvey

84 Mo. App. 433, 1900 Mo. App. LEXIS 74
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedApril 30, 1900
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 84 Mo. App. 433 (Williams v. Silvey) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Williams v. Silvey, 84 Mo. App. 433, 1900 Mo. App. LEXIS 74 (Mo. Ct. App. 1900).

Opinion

SMITH, P. J.

The present writ of error is to try a judgment entered by the circuit court at the January term thereof, 1899, as of the July adjourned term (August 20th), 189G.

Williams assignee for benefit of creditors of the bank of Salisbury, sued Silvey, Walton and Pinks, as joint makers, [437]*437for balances alleged to be due said bank on two promissory notes hereinafter set forth. Silvey pleaded a release. Walton pleaded uncredited payments. Einks made default. Issue having been joined by replication to each of said answers the cause was tried before Judge Rucker and a jury, on the twentieth of August, 1896.

After the evidence was in, it was agreed by counsel, as a matter of accommodation to Mr. Ilinley, who desired to return to his home in Kansas City, that the jury should be discharged and the cause submitted to the court, who should take the same under advisement, and, after passing upon instructions and hearing arguments, should thereafter render a finding or verdict as of the date of the trial, to be taken and accepted as and for the verdict of the jury. By directions of the judge the clerk left spaces in his record of that date—August 20, 1896—to be thereafter supplied with such orders as the court should direct.

Thus the record stood until the January term, 1897, at which term (the cause having meanwhile been argued at Keytesville, in vacation), the judge announced from the bench his finding against the plaintiff and in favor of Silvey on both counts of the petition, and in favor of plaintiff and against Walton on both counts, “for the amount of notes and interest sued on.” A form of finding or verdict prepared by Mr. Kinley, attorney for defendant Silvey, was then signed by the judge and by him handed down to the clerk, with a request or direction to Mr. Q. O. Hammond, attorney for plaintiff, to compute the amount due on the two notes and furnish the same to the clerk for insertion in the blank spaces left for that purpose in said form of verdict, and in the record. It was then agreed that Mr. Kinley should prepare and furnish the clerk, in vacation, an appropriate form of judgment, to be copied by the clerk into the record. Matters stood in this situation for a year or more, when the clerk [438]*438received Lie form of judgment from Mr. Kinloy, which he entered in the record.

Afterwards, attorney for plaintiff furnished the clerk with a calculation of the balance supposed to be due upon each of the two notes in question, with interest to the twentieth of August, 1896, to wit: $1,420.91 as the balance then due upon one nóte, and $915.56 as the balance then duo on the other note,- amounting in all to $2,336.41. Accepting these as the correct figures the clerk wrote the same into his record in vacation; whereby the judgment was completed. The'aggregate amount so inserted in said judgment exceeds by one thousand dollars any finding' Judge Rucker could possibly have made under the pleadings and evidence before, him.

On January 14, 1899, plaintiff filed his motion to amend the judgment in said cause nunc pro tunc, in which it wás alleged that at the July term, 1896, plaintiff recovered judgment against defendant Walton on two promissory notes, one for $2,080 and the other for $2,100, dated respectively March 29, 1888, and Sept. 1, 1890, each due one day after date bearing ten per cent per annum, to be compounded annually.' It was further alleged in said motion that on August 20, 1896, the cause coming on to be heard by agreement of parties the court discharged the jury and the cause was submitted to the court, and after duly considering the matter it found the issues against defendant Walton on each count of the petition in the sum of-dollars; that the court by agreement of parties and with the consent of the jury signed the name of one of the jurors as foreman to the verdict; that a judgment was entered in accordance with the verdict, leaving the amount thereof blank; that at the time of making such verdict in the name of the jury the court directed attorneys for plaintiff to calculate the amounts due on the notes described in plaintiff’s petition and to furnish the clerk with the amount due on each of said notes, to be [439]*439by him inserted at the proper place in the verdict rendered by the court and also in the judgment before the word “dollars” where preceded by the blank space in the finding of the court rendered as the verdict of the jury, which direction of the court was authorized and agreed to by all parties to the suit and such calculation and all orders necessary in said cause should be made thereafter in vacation. ' That by mistake or omission said calculation on said notes was not made and entered on the judge’s docket or in the minutes of the clerk, but remained blank. "Wherefore plaintiff moves the court for a nunc fro tunc order correcting the finding and judgment of the court by inserting before the word “dollars” in the finding on the first count of plaintiff’s petition the words fourteen hundred and twenty and 91-100 and in the finding on the second count before the word “dollars” nine hundred fifteen and 56-100 and in the judgment by inserting before the word “dollars” two thousand three hundred and thirty-six and 47-100.

Upon the hearing of the motion on January 18, 1899, the plaintiff gave in evidence, the original petition and the notes attached thereto with indorsements thereon, answer of defendant to action, instructions given for plaintiff, directing a finding for plaintiff on both counts of the petition for the balance due on said notes, the verdict with amount thereof in blank, the judgment for blank amount, entry made on judge’s docket which read “Trial by jury and verdict against defendant Walton for- on first count and for-on second count;” and that the entry in the clerk’s minutes was to the same effect. Tin’s record evidence over the objections of defendant was supplemented by the affidavits of the judge (Eucker) who tried the case and made the finding already referred "to, the clerk of the court who made the said entry on his minutes and that of the attorneys previously referred to, which tended to sustain the allegations in respect to the parol orders of the court [440]*440made with the consent of the parties at the time its finding in blank was announced.

The motion was not heard by Judge Rucker but by his successor in office. On January 18, 1899, the motion was sustained and an entry nunc pro tunc was ordered, in which it was recited that on August 20, 1896, the court found and directed a judgment for plaintiff on the first count of the petition for $340.33 and on the second for $915.56 and for the aggregate amount of $1,255.89. “It was further considered and adjudged that the judgment so entered as aforesaid be corrected and reformed at this time in manner and form as the same should have been entered of date of August 20, 1896, so that when reformed the same shall read as follows”—then follows, to wit (omitting title of case): “On this day coming on to be heard, parties answer ready for trial and come the following jury (naming them) who were duly sworn and returned into open court with following verdict: ‘We, the jury, find the issues on the first count of plaintiff’s petition against defendant Walton for $340.33 and on the second for $915.56.’ ” The judgment followed the verdict.

The defendant filed his motion to set aside the entry of judgment nunc pro tunc, which being overruled brings the case here by writ of error.

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

Related

Gordon v. Gordon
390 S.W.2d 583 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1965)
Tyree v. Midwest Envelope Co.
258 S.W. 717 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1924)
Kirkman v. Stevenson
238 S.W. 543 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1922)
State ex rel. Gardiner v. Wurdeman
179 S.W. 964 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1915)
State ex rel. Tucker v. Mitchell
105 S.W. 655 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1907)
Gormley v. St. Louis Transit Co.
103 S.W. 1147 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1907)
Becker v. Schutte
85 Mo. App. 57 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1900)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
84 Mo. App. 433, 1900 Mo. App. LEXIS 74, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/williams-v-silvey-moctapp-1900.