Wills v. Wills

58 S.W. 301, 104 Tenn. 382
CourtTennessee Supreme Court
DecidedApril 12, 1900
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 58 S.W. 301 (Wills v. Wills) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Tennessee Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wills v. Wills, 58 S.W. 301, 104 Tenn. 382 (Tenn. 1900).

Opinion

Wilkies, J.

This is a petition for writ of error corana nobis in tbe Circuit Court of Gibson County. Its object is to annul, avoid, and vacate a judgment for divorce pronounced in tbat [383]*383Court in tbe case of Zela E. Wills v. H. M. Wills at tbe September term, 1899. By that judgment divorce was granted to tbe wife, as well as tbe custody of two minor children. Tbe petition was filed witbin a year after tbe rendition of tbe decree complained of. Errors were assigned, a motion to dismiss was made and sustained upon tbe ground that a writ of error coram nolois would not lie to correct errors committed in a proceeding for divorce.

This ruling of tbe learned trial Judge was based upon tbe provisions of tbe statute (Shannon, § 4890) in tbe following words:

“In divorce cases an appeal shall be tbe only mode of. revising errors. And upon the further ground that the writ contradicted tbe record of the former suit and was insufficient in law.”

The principal allegations of the petition upon which the right to relief is based, are that tbe petitioner and defendant thereto were married in 1894; that he was then, and bad ever since been, a citizen of Indiana and not a citizen or resident of Tennessee, though be had been in Tennessee for some. two years teaching, but all the while intending to return to Indiana; that he did return to that State in September, 1896, his wife returning with him, and where they continued to reside until April, 1899, when she left him and came to Tennessee, and at once filed her bill for divorce. It was charged that the [384]*384wife bad not been a citizen of Tennessee two whole years before bringing the suit, but in fact for only 22 days; that petitioner had no actual notice of the proceeding for divorce, that it was fraudulently brought, and prosecuted, and he was prevented from appearing and making defense by want of notice; that if he had been allowed to make defense, he would have shown the want of residence of. defendant in Tennessee for the period required by law; that the charges and allegations of the bill for divorce as to cruel > and inhuman treatment and failure to support and provide for her, which was. the basis of the divorce, were untrue; that the defendant was herself in fault and not entitled to divorce; that she was not a suitable person to have the custody of their children. From the action of the Court in dismissing the petition the petitioner has appealed and assigned errors.

The first assignment is that the trial Judge erred in sustaining the motion to dismiss the petition upon the ground that the matter was controlled by statute (Shannon, §4890).

The contention for defendant in this Court is that a writ of error comm nobis is a mode of revising errors and therefore falls within the letter and spirit of the statute above referred to. Chapter 14 of Shannon’s compilation is headed “Of the proceeding for the correction of errors.” [385]*385The first section under this article is § 4834, and is in these words:

■'‘Errors not embraced by the provisions of the Code in regard to amendments may be corrected in one or more of the following modes:

■‘1. By writ of error coram nobis.

“2. By rehearing, review, or new trial

“3. By certiorari.

“4. By appeal.

“5. By appeal in the nature of a writ of error.

“6. By writ of error.”

. The next article, being Article 11 under this chapter, treats fully of the writ of error coram, nobis and the cases in which it may be brought and the manner in which it may be prosecuted. It thus appears to be treated by statute as one of the modes provided for the revising or correcting of errors.

Section 4838 provides that it may lie in the County, Circuit, or Chancery Court, and by § 4S39 within one year from the rendition of the judgment. By § 4844 the relief under this writ is confined to errors of fact of which the party seeking relief had no notice, or which he was prevented by disability from showing or correcting, or in which he was prevented from making defense by surprise, accident, mistake or fraud, without fault on his part. And by § 4845 instances and examples are given of cases in which the [386]*386writ will lie, such as infancy when the judgment was rendered, or a real defense to an action by-motion of which the party aggrieved had no notice, and other like cases.

It has been held by this Court that the effect, of § 4390. supra, is to prevent the review of a divorce decree by writ of error. Parmenter v. Parmenter, 3 Head, 225; McBee v. McBee, 1 Heis., 561.

Nor can a decree for divorce be opened under the broad provisions of § 6189, Shannon’s Code, giving nonresident defendants time after service of copy of decree - to defend against it. Parmenter Cold., 545: McBee v. McBee, 1 Heis., 561.

The argument is made with much plausibility and force that a writ of error coram nobis is, in effect, a new suit and not a mere proceeding to correct or revise errors; that the object of this proceeding is to amend and set aside a former judgment, and attention is called -to the fact that in order to obtain it a petition must be filed, a bond for cost must be entered into, ten days’ notice must be given, errors must be assigned, that the judgment is final as relates to the former judgment and suit. Crawford v. Williams, 1 Swan, 341.

It is spoken of in many of ofir cases as a new suit (Crawford v. Williams, 1 Swan, 341; Elliott v. McNairy, 1 Bax., 343; Anderson v. [387]*387Hagge, 3 Tenn. Cases, 674; Gibson’s Suits in Chancery, See. 1092, note; Caruthers’ History of a Lawsuit, 312 et seq.), and it cannot be brought in the Supreme Court. Lamb v. Sneed, 4 Bax., 349.

When filed in the Chancery Court it is treated as the equivalent of an original bill in the nature of bills of review. Gibson’s Suits in Chancery, Sec. 1092; Leftwick v. Hamilton, 9 Heis., 310.

The fact that in effect it is a new suit, to be tried de novo upon the case as made out by the petition and proof thereunder, and not upon the original record, is not conclusive that it is not a mode of correcting errors. All appeals from Justices to the Circuit Court- are tried de novo in that Court, and still such appeal is clearly a mode of correcting errors, and so with new trials granted in the Court below, and still it is a mode of • correcting errors. Nor is it conclusive upon this feature that a petition must be filed and bond given for cost. This is the practice when applying for writ of error to this Court when the object is to correct and -revise errors of law in the Court below. So, also, notice must be given in case of writs of error coram nobis alike in each, and upon final hearing the adjudication is conclusive in each. The material difference between writs of error and writs of error [388]*388corcim nobis

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Bluebook (online)
58 S.W. 301, 104 Tenn. 382, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wills-v-wills-tenn-1900.