136 Mo. App. 726 | Mo. Ct. App. | 1909
Defendant in error brought this suit in the circuit court of Livingston county against plaintiff in error, a non-resident life insurance company
We think the court had no jurisdiction over the person of the defendant in this suit at the time the judgment was rendered. The office of a summons is to bring the defendant to whom it is directed into court to answer the petition of the plaintiff. The original summons, being regularly issued and properly served and returned, performed its mission, and the defendant was bound to appear at the May term and answer the petition in the time prescribed by law, or suffer the consequences of having judgment rendered against it by default. An alias summons is issued when the original summons has not produced its effect. [1 Rap. & L. Law Diet., 44.] It is employed in cases where the original summons is defective in form or manner of service and cannot be held to have performed its function. An order of record that an alias summons be issued necessarily must constitute an abandonment of the original service. [20 Am. and Eng. Ency. P. and Pr., 1180; Finley v. Richards, 1 Blck. (Ind.) 487.] When issued and served,
To hold that the failure to follow up the order had the effect to restore the original service would be to say that a defendant, dismissed from court to await further commands of the court, still is bound to remain in court and proceed with his defense as though no such order of dismissal had been made. We conclude that plaintiff in error did not have his day in court, and, therefore, that the judgment should not be allowed to stand.
Point is made by the plaintiff in error that the petition is fatally defective. We think the petition is deficient, but that its defects may be cured by amendment.
The judgment is reversed and the cause remanded.