109 Neb. 648 | Neb. | 1923
This proceeding was instituted April 9, 1919, to recover $120,000,000 in damages. Plaintiffs claim to
Though the proceeding has been pending, in court nearly four .years, it has not passed beyond the petitions and the conduct of plaintiffs and their counsel.
Four petitions were filed. .The first covered approximately 400 pages of matter, containing, among other things, inflammatory language, conclusions of fact and law,, redundant allegations, unnecessary repetitions, scandal, private chat, personal episodes,, evidence, criminal charges and. other extraneous matters having no legitimate. relation to the stating of a cause of action for. damages. These flagrant violations of the rules of. pleading stand out conspicuously' on the face of the petition. They- cumber the record, harass defendants and consume time which the court should devote to litigants who invoke processes of the court and judicial powers in an orderly manner. The law does not require defendants to answer such a petition, nor are they required, in attacking it, to perform services equivalent to the; drafting of a petition stating in proper form a cause of action against themselves. Following the proper procedure in a case like; this, the district court struck the first,petition from the.files.
, ■ Afterward, a shorter petition was ■ filed,, and it was also stricken from the record because it did not .conform to the statutory rule. requiring, “A statement of the facts constituting the cause of action in ordinary
Later, a third petition, containing generally the improper matter and the other, infirmities in both the first and the second. petitions, was filed. This was also stricken from the files,- the findings of the trial court containing, among other things - the .following:
“The court further finds that the plaintiffs have been contemptuous of the court, .constructively and legally, filing petitions repeatedly, and particularly in filing their, .third amended petition, after being advised 'by the court that, previous petitions with like defects were, improper,, and after the. striking of such previous petitions, from the files; but the court does not find that. .the, plaintiffs are actually and actively contemptupus, and so the court will not order the case dismissed.”
After this warning, while the opportunity to. file a petition conforming .to the rules of .pleading and to the orders of the district- court was still open,, plaintiffs filed a fourth petition containing, .in substance, the fatal defects for which the second petition had been condemned. ..The fourth petition met the same fate as the others, but, -in addition, the action was. dismissed with prejudice. From the dismissal ^plaintiffs have appealed. ... ..
Did the trial court err in striking the fourth petition from the files and in dismissing..the proceeding with prejudice?
While no. particular form of .expression or literary ' style is required of plaintiffs in drafting a petition, both . the . statute and the orderly procedure ■ essential to the administration of justice require “A statement of the facts constituting the. cause of action in ordinary and concise language and without repetition.” This rule is essential for .the purposes of advising .defendants of their alleged wrongs or obligations, of -raising and defining issues of fact, of ruling on the admissibility
Affirmed.