73 P. 1018 | Or. | 1903
after stating the facts in the foregoing language, delivered the opinion of the court.
The statute provides that “a pleading or paper shall be filed by delivering the same to the clerk at his office, who shall indorse upon it the day of the month and the year and subscribe his name thereto”: B. & C. Comp. § 546. It will be observed that this statute does not make the indorsement by the clerk a prerequisite to the filing, or provide that no paper shall be deemed filed without such indorsement. The filing consists in delivering the paper to the clerk with an intention that it shall be filed. The law imposes the duty upon the clerk of making the proper indorsement thereon, but his failure to do so cannot affect the validity of the filing. A paper or document is filed within the meaning of this statute when it is delivered to and received by the clerk to be kept among the files of his office, subject to the inspection of the parties. The indorsement required to be made thereon by the clerk is intended merely as a memorandum and as evidence of the time of the filing, but is not essential thereto. The act of filing consists in presenting the paper to the proper officer, and its being received by him and deposited among the records of his office. “A paper is said also to be filed,” says Mr. Bouvier, “when it is delivered to the proper officer, and by him received to be kept on file”: Bouvier’s Law Dictionary. Mr. Abbott defines filing as “to place papers upon a file; or, more generally, to deposit papers in official custody, or receive them officially for orderly and system
Affirmed.