236 N.W. 28 | Iowa | 1931
[1] The appellant's brief and argument contains the following as the only statement of errors relied upon for reversal:
"The errors relied on for a reversal of this case are the decision of the Court overruling the motion to direct the jury to return a verdict in favor of the Defendant and in sustaining plaintiff's motion to direct a verdict in his favor, and in entering judgment for the plaintiff."
The motion for a directed verdict in behalf of the appellant contained fifteen separate grounds. The appellee's motion for a directed verdict rested upon five separate and distinct grounds. The court overruled the appellant's motion for a directed verdict and sustained the appellee's motion generally, and entered judgment for appellee.
I. Appellee challenges the sufficiency of the errors relied upon for reversal to comply with Rule 30 of this court. Unless we are to overrule a long line of decisions, the position of the appellee must be sustained. Many of the cases are collected and reviewed in the opinion in Dailey v. Standard Oil Co.,
[2] In this connection we deem it not improper to refer to the fact that there seems to be a somewhat general misapprehension among the bar as to the effect of Code 12869, which is as follows:
"No assignment of errors shall be required in any case at law or in equity docketed in the supreme court."
As early as 1918 we considered this statute in the case of Wine v. Jones,
"The rule requires that appellant state the errors relied on for reversal. Sections 4136 and 4137 of the Code exacted the assignment of errors as a condition of having them reviewed, but these statutes were repealed by the thirtieth general assembly, and it enacted that: `No assignment of errors shall be required in any case at law or in equity now pending or hereafter docketed in the Supreme Court.' Section 4136, Code Supplement, 1913. (Code, 1927, 12869).
"Counsel for appellant contend that the rule is in conflict with this statute, and if so, the authority of this court to adopt the same is rightly challenged. The manifest purpose of the statute was to do away with certain abuses which had grown up under the practice under the statutes repealed, sometimes as high as 400 or 500 errors being assigned in a single case, and much refinement being indulged in ascertaining whether the assignment of error complied with Section 4136, which declared that it `must clearly and specifically indicate the very error complained of.' In remedying this abuse, however, the legislature had no notion of impinging upon the Constitution, which, in Section 4 of Article 5, declared that:
"`The Supreme Court shall have appellate jurisdiction only in cases in chancery, and shall constitute a court for the correction of errors at law, under such restrictions as the general assembly may by law prescribe; and shall have power to issue all *230 writs and process necessary to secure justice to parties, and exercise a supervisory control over all inferior judicial tribunals throughout the state.'
"The legislature may impose restrictions, as by limiting appeals by the amounts in controversy (Andrews Smith v. Burdick Goble,
To the cases cited in the Wine case regarding the nature of an assignment of errors there may be added the following: *231
Scott v. Great Western Coal Coke Co.,
It is perfectly obvious that the statute in question (Code, 12869) in no manner relieves counsel of the necessity of presenting a proper statement of errors relied upon for reversal. The necessary particularity required to make such statement comply with Rule 30 of this court has been repeatedly reiterated and emphasized by many decisions. We must enforce the rule as to all litigants in this court or abrogate it entirely. The latter alternative we cannot adopt.
[3] II. After appellee had filed his motion to dismiss, directing attention to the failure of appellant to properly set out errors relied upon for reversal, the appellant, by an additional and amended brief and argument, seeks to avoid the appellee's contention by attempting in said additional and amended brief and argument to amend the errors relied upon for reversal, setting out the pages of the abstract where the motions of the respective parties are set forth. Even if this had been included in appellant's original brief and argument it would have been insufficient. Bodholdt v. Townsend, supra.
Upon the case as presented to us, the judgment of the district court must be affirmed. A ruling on the motion to dismiss which was submitted with the case is obviated by the conclusion we reach.
The judgment is — Affirmed.