Wisner v. Nichols

143 N.W. 1020, 165 Iowa 15
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedNovember 20, 1913
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 143 N.W. 1020 (Wisner v. Nichols) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wisner v. Nichols, 143 N.W. 1020, 165 Iowa 15 (iowa 1913).

Opinions

Withrow, J.

I. Plaintiff’s petition in two counts charged libel by the defendant. Defendant filed a motion to strike different parts of the two counts of the petition, which was sustained, to which ruling plaintiff excepted. The effect of the ruling on the motion was to strike from the files all of the essential statements in plaintiff’s cause of action, the legal sufficiency of which was challenged by the motion. Both parties have in argument treated the motion as having worked all the purposes of a demurrer, and an examination of the record satisfies us that, although carrying a different name, it should be so treated, although we cannot approve the use of a motion to strike where a demurrer is the proper [18]*18means. Following the ruling on the motion to strike, the plaintiff filed her amended and substituted petition in three counts, which in no legal sense differs from the original petition, but was a repleading of that which had been previously stricken out. To this new pleading the defendant filed a demurrer, and also a motion to strike applied to the several counts, presenting the grounds urged in the original motion, and also the further ground as to each that it repleaded matter which had previously been stricken out. The motion to strike was made to apply to the objectionable paragraphs, and also the amended and substituted petition as a whole. There was no ruling upon defendant’s demurrer, but the motion to strike was on September 21, 1911, sustained as to all grounds, and judgment was entered against plaintiff for costs. From this judgment and ruling plaintiff appeals; her notice stating that said appeal is taken “from the judgment rendered in said action by" said court on the 21st day of September, 1911, and from all orders and rulings made by the court in said action. ’ ’

II. It is claimed by the appellee that the ruling on the motion to the original petition, which determined that it stated no cause of action, is now controlling as to the law of the case, for after such ruling the plaintiff repleaded by way of an amended and substituted petition, setting out in substance all the material facts originally pleaded, and no more, which second pleading was on motion stricken from the files.

whin5 may 'be It is settled by many of our cases that, upon the filing of such new pleading, when it is but a repleading of matter previously held insufficient to state a cause of action, it is the right of the opposite party to have such pleading stricken from the files. Epley v. Ely, 68 Iowa, 70; Town of Waukon v. Strouse, 74 Iowa, 547; Hoyt v. Beach, 104 Iowa, 257.

[19]*192. Same : demurrer : re-pleading : waiver of objection. [18]*18That rule, however, is not determinative of the question presented, which is: Where a ruling on a demurrer to [19]*19a petition, or upon a motion serving the same purpose, holds that no cause of action has been stated, and an ^exception is taken to such ruling, does the plaintiff, by filing a repleading of the same facts, which on motion is stricken from the files, waive his right to have considered on appeal the correctness of the first ruling ?

There are in some of our previous cases expressions which tend to support the rule that upon appeal, in instances like the present one, the appellant has only the right to have considered the correctness of the ruling upon the motion to strike the second pleading; but we are of opinion that under a fair analysis of such decisions the rule as thus broadly claimed by appellant cannot be sustained. We therefore give attention not only to the eases cited by appellee, but also to others which may be taken as the basis of the rule.

In Epley v. Ely, 68 Iowa, 70, the plaintiff appealed from an order sustaining a motion to strike a second amended petition, on the grounds that it but restated matters previously held insufficient. It will be noted that the appeal was limited to a charge of error in such ruling. This court held the ruling to be correct, and that, if the lower court erred in sustaining the demurrer, the plaintiff should have secured an exception and sought to review the ruling by an appeal therefrom.

In Town of Waukon v. Strouse, 74 Iowa, 547, plaintiff’s petition was, on demurrer, held insufficient. An amendment was filed, in two counts. On defendant’s motion the first count was stricken as being a repleading of the facts held to be insufficient, and the second count of the amended petition was successfully assailed by demurrer. This court then held that so far as count 1 was involved it had been adjudicated, and as it presented no question for the court to determine it was proper to strike it from the files. It does not appear that any exception was taken to the ruling on the demurrer to the original petition, and on appeal the only question con[20]*20sidered as to that count was the ruling on the motion to strike.

Krause v. Lloyd, 100 Iowa, 666, is authority for the well-settled and unchallenged rule that, when one amends his petition after an adverse ruling against it, he thereby waives the right to appeal from the order sustaining the demurrer. In that case the amendment to the petition was filed after demurrer to the original petition had been sustained, and on motion the amendment was stricken out as a repetition of matters previously pleaded, and judgment was entered against plaintiff for costs. On appeal the judgment of the lower court.was reversed on the grounds that additional material matter had been pleaded in the amendment. The question here presented was not decided.

Hoyt v. Beach, 104 Iowa, 257, is authority only for the proposition that it is proper to strike an answer which is in substance a mere repetition of allegations which have been held insufficient on demurrer to a former answer in the same case. Appeal was taken from the ruling on the motion to strike, and the holding was as above stated.

Frum v. Keeney, 109 Iowa, 393, cited by counsel for appellee, treats only of rulings upon a demurrer and motion to strike filed by plaintiff attacking defendant’s' answer, both of which pleadings were overruled, and plaintiff thereupon filed a reply. It was held that in so doing he waived the right to complain of such rulings; but that under Code, section 3564, the plaintiff did not waive his right to attack the pleading on the grounds upon which his demurrer was founded, at any subsequent time in the progress of the case, as such right was expressly reserved to the litigant upon the overruling of a demurrer, but that the statute was without application where the demurrer had been sustained. The same rule is declared in Geiser Mfg. Co. v. Krogman, 111 Iowa, 503, and upon the question under consideration that case goes no farther.

In McKee v. Ill. Cent. Ry. Co., 121 Iowa, 550, an original [21]*21petition had been held insufficient on demurrer, plaintiff saving no exception. Plaintiff took leave to amend, and thereafter filed successively three amended and substituted petitions, each of which was in turn stricken from the files as not differing in legal effect from the original petition. In his assignment of error the plaintiff in that case complained of nothing but the ruling on the last motion, although in argument the merits of the case were discussed as bearing upon the question whether a cause of action had been stated in the amended petition.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
143 N.W. 1020, 165 Iowa 15, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wisner-v-nichols-iowa-1913.