24 A.2d 548 | Pa. Super. Ct. | 1941
Argued November 12, 1941.
The original controversy, viz., whether defendant, an attorney, had personally agreed to pay plaintiffs the cost of printing a Record and Brief, has long been discarded as a basis for the battle. The finding on the merits in plaintiffs' favor was made May 8, 1936. Defendant's motions for new trial and judgment n.o.v. were overruled June 3, 1936. Unfortunately, in overruling the motion for judgment n.o.v., the court (LEWIS, J.), failed to certify the evidence and direct that judgment be entered for plaintiffs. This it should have done. National Bank v.Shakespeare,
Defendant's first contention is that the members of the court which heard argument and entered the February 1941 judgment were, in effect, reviewing the original order overruling the motion for judgment n.o.v. and that they were without power to do so. The basis of his contention is not entirely clear, but we hold that the court was not reviewing the original order. It was supplying a required formality. The Act of 19051 provides: ". . . . . . it shall be the duty of the court, if it does not grant a new trial, to so certify the evidence, and to enter such judgment as should have been entered upon that evidence. . . . . ." When Judge LEWIS overruled defendant's motion for judgment n.o.v. and didn't grant a new trial, the only judgment possible was for plaintiffs. And the court which later entered it was not required to consider the evidence or rehear the merits.
Defendant next contends that plaintiffs were guilty of laches in waiting four and a half years before attempting to perfect the judgment. But the oversight was Judge LEWIS', not plaintiffs'. Defendant is in no position to complain that plaintiffs didn't move until 1941 to secure the judgment rightfully due them in 1936. It was to his benefit that no judgment existed during the intervening period.
Finally, defendant raises in this court for the first time the question whether, in order to recover, plaintiffs were required to prove compliance with the Fictitious Names Act.2 The question was raised too late. *276 Bovaird v. Barrett Son,
Judgment is affirmed.