57 S.C. 551 | S.C. | 1900
The opinion of the Court was delivered by
These cases were heard together on appeal from a decree of his Honor, Judge Buchanan. Judge Buchanan heard the case of plaintiffs, appellants, against R. T. Crawford, defendant, respondent, by consent without a jury a,t Lancaster, at October term of Circuit Court, 1899, and it was agreed, as the facts were the same substantially in the other cases on the issues involved, that whatever decree was entered in this case should be entered in each of the other cases stated in the title. When the cause was heard by Judge Buchanan there was no dispute as to the facts of the case, and the determination of the case turned solely upon the point as to whether or not these plaintiffs, appellants, had been properly served and made parties to a suit instituted by their mother, Charlotte H. Foster, as administratrix of the personal estate of J. H. Foster, deceased, plaintiff, against Eloise Foster et al., defendants, to pay debts, partition lands, &c. It was conceded that these plaintiffs, appellants, were named in said suit as parties defendant, but it was denied that such service had been made as would make them parties to said suit and bind them by an order or decree passed therein. His Honor, Judge Buchanan, held that these plaintiffs, appellants, had been made parties to that suit, and were bound by orders and decrees therein made, and found that the legal title to the lands in question was in defendants. He found that the appellants here, who were minors and defendants in that case, were personally served by delivery of process in that case, and their mother and the person with whom they reside admitted in writing that she had been served with summons in that case, and this acknowledgment
From this decree of Judge Buchanan the plaintiffs appeal, alleging error: “First. That his Honor erred in holding in the case where the mother and sole parent is plaintiff in an action against her minor children, defendants, it is not necessary. that the summons in action should be served upon the parent, there being no general or testamentary guardian of said defendants. Second. That his Honor erred in bolding that it appeared upon the record that the summons in the action of Foster v. Foster et al., was served upon the mother and only surviving parent of minor defendants.”
From my view of the case, it is not necessary to consider the first ground of appeal. The record in case of Charlotte R. Foster, as administratrix, &c., plaintiff, against Eloise Foster et al., shows, by sworn return of W. McD. Brown, made on 21st of January, 1889, that he personally served the defendants in that suit, “by delivering to them personally and leaving with them copie-s of the same at‘their residence at Lancaster, S. C.,” on the 19th of Jammy, 1889, and he proceeds to name parties served, and among those named as so served are the appellants here; on the back of said same summons is the indorsement: “As the only surviving parent and protector of the infant children herein named, I do hereby acknowledge service of a copy of this summons on me for them, who were also personally served on the 19th day of January, 1889. They all reside with me. C. R. Foster.”
Later on a summons was issued to a supplemental complaint in said case, and upon the back of which we find a re
But we think the record shows affirmatively that the infants and their mother were both served with summons, and that the judgment of the Circuit Court should be and it is affirmed. It is also ordered, that the clerk of this Court do, at the proper time, send.down the remittitur in each of the cases stated in the title, in accordance with the judgment herein announced.