207 A.D. 416 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1923
On this appeal there is a motion to dismiss on the part of the respondent. The motion to dismiss is based upon the ground that at the time the plaintiff’s motion was granted the defendant submitted an order, although the motion was decided against him; that this order of his was signed, and that these circumstances bring defendant within the general provisions of the Civil Practice Act, section 612. That section limits the time to appeal to thirty days after service upon the attorney for the appellant of a copy of the judgment or order appealed from and a written notice of the entry thereof, except that the party entering the judgment or order, or serving the notice of the entry thereof, shall not be entitled to further notice to limit his time to appeal. This latter ’ part of the section containing the exception was added by chapter 372 of the Laws of 1921, and was evidently intended to prevent a party entering a judgment or order from requiring that he be served with a copy thereof by his adversary before his time to appeal began to run from a judgment or order which he himself had entered. We do not think that the amendment applies to a case where an order is entered by the clerk of the court without any application ' therefor by the party whose time is sought to be limited. The fact that the order submitted by the adverse party was signed is not communicated to him until he has notice of entry of it. In the case of a judgment or order where the party or an attorney procures the entry thereof by his own overt act through presenting it for entry himself at the clerk’s office, he, of course, has notice of the fact of entry.
In this case plaintiff’s attorneys themselves served a copy of the order upon the defendant’s attorneys with notice of entry thereof, and a notice of appeal from this order was served within
We think the motion to dismiss the appeal should be denied. On the merits of the appeal there must be a reversal of the order.
The order permitted the plaintiff to issue a supplemental summons directed to an additional defendant,, and also allowed an amendment to the complaint, which set up the fact that the original defendant and his subsequent codefendant, now brought in, were copartners. The affidavit upon which the motion directing a supplemental summons to issue to bring in an additional party defendant was granted and the relief permitting the service of an amended complaint was allowed, stated that “ it appears, however, and deponent is informed and verily believes that the defendant is a member of a copartnership consisting of himself and Ernest Heymann, trading under the firm name and style of Heymann & Co., at Vilvorde, Belgium.” There is nothing in the motion papers to show why this original defendant was originally sued alone; why the Belgian partnership was not joined in the beginning, nor why the warranties, which are the subject of the suit, were not then claimed to have been made by the firm: instead of by the single defendant. There is no showing that the parties are a Belgian copartnership, or what the legal relationship of Belgian copartners is to the entity of a partnership; whether individual copartners are primarily liable or merely liable as sureties in the event of an entity being found unable to respond. The corporation itself submits no affidavit excusing the mistake in bringing the original action against one defendant and not against the firm. No reason is shown for postponing the application for nearly two1 years after the commencement of the suit. There is nothing to show that the present defendant and the subsequent defendant, as a partnership, are now the proper parties. There is no proof that the defendant is in this jurisdiction or will ever come here. Obviously an affidavit of an attorney, not shown to be familiar personally with the facts, is totally insufficient for transforming
The order should be reversed, with ten dollars costs and disbursements, and the motion denied, with ten dollars costs.
Clarke, P. J., Dowling, Finch and Martin, JJ., concur.
Motion to dismiss appeal denied, with ten dollars costs; order entered September 27, 1923, reversed, with ten dollars costs and disbursements, and motion denied, with ten dollars costs, and appeal from order for reargument dismissed.