178 Iowa 370 | Iowa | 1915
III. Appellant has argued the other seven assignments of error together, asserting that all relate to the sufficiency of
Parties in the preparation of abstracts are to- “preserve everything material to the questions to be decided and omit everything else.” Rule 52. Brevity in an abstract is not
only a commendable quality, so long as all material matters are presented, but it is expressly enjoined by the above rule. Howard v. Pratt, 110 Iowa 533. It is not proper to
set out in the abstract tlie entire testimony of witnesses by question and answer, without excluding immaterial matters. Vaughn v. Smith, 58 Iowa 553; Tootle v. Taylor, 64 Iowa 629; State v. Hull, 83 Iowa 112; Piper v. Fletcher, 115 Iowa 263. And where the rule of this court is ignored and the abstract is made up by printing the questions and answers of the witnesses, or the answers only in full, regardless of their materiality, the judgment may well be affirmed without examining the abstract. Phillips v. Crips, 108 Iowa 605; Cressey v. Lochner, 109 Iowa 454; Hurley v. Hurley, 117 Iowa 621.
In the case at bar, the abstract contains 368 pages, 306 of which consist of the questions and answers, or answers in full, together with numerous objections and rulings thereon,» none of which are referred to in argument, and statements of attorneys not pertinent to any error discussed. Had the method pursued in printing the abstract been discovered in time, it should have been stricken from the record, and counsel given the opportunity to prepare an abstract containing all of the record material to a review, which need not have exceeded 100 or 125 pages. As this was not done, we have gone into the abstract deep enough to ascertain that there was evidence, either direct or circumstantial, in support of the finding of the jury on every issue suggested in appellant’s argument, though this but meagerly refers to' its contents.