11 Neb. 373 | Neb. | 1881
In the view we take of this case our disposal of it must turn upon the decision of a single question, viz., the first raised .in the brief of counsel for the defendants in error, which is, that Buchanan, by asking for and obtaining relief at the bands of the court against the successful plaintiff below, under the “act for the relief of occupying claimants,” waived all objections to the verdict and judgment against him, of which he now complains. And our decision of this question must be in accord with what we believe was the intention of the legislature in passing that act.
Section three (Gen. Statutes, 501) provides “that the court rendering j udgment in any ease provided for by this act, against the occupying claimant, shall, at the request of either party, cause a journal entry thereof to be made, and thereupon a jury shall be impaneled by the court in the usual manner provided by law in civil cases.”
By following sections, the jury thus impaneled are required “to view the premises in question, and then and there, on oath or affirmation, assess the value of all lasting and valuable improvements,” contemplated by the first section of the act; also all “damages, if any, which the said land may have sustained by waste,” etc., and report such finding to the clerk of the court at the appointed time, and on this verdict ■the court is required to render the proper judgment, as in other cases.
The record before us shows the proceedings under the relief act to have been somewhat premature and rather irregular, but there is nothing in this particular to affect our present decision. It seems that at once upon the return of the verdict, finding the defendants in error entitled to the lot, and before judgment thereon, the plaintiff in error moved for a jury to assess the value of his improvements as an occupying claimant. By consent of both parties, the same jury that had just served in the ejectment suit, was called, and, after trial had, made a finding, of which no complaint has been heard, in favor of the plaintiff in error, for eight hundred and eighty dollars and eighty cents, for which amount judgment was duly rendered in his favor. After asking and receiving all this at the hands of the court, on the strength of the result of the former action, should he be permitted to question its correctness? As we think, very clearly not. If he believed that the result was unjust and erroneous, and
Judgment aeeirmed.