— This appeal brings before us another controversy arising, under the provisions of Rule of Civil Procedure 215.1. The decisive question now before us is the effect of a continuance to a term certain granted by proper order of the court, when the cаse was not tried and no further continuance granted at the term to which the continuance was ordered.
The plaintiffs’ original petition was filed on December 27, 1961. This brought the case under the provisions of the rule after July 1,1963; and on August 15, 1963, the clerk of the Polk District Court sеnt the required notice to all counsel of record. The notice advised that the ease would be dismissed if not tried at the Seрtember 1963 term of the court. Prior to the expiration of the September term the case was continued, by proper proceedings and order of the court, to the November 1963 term. No dispute arises as to these facts.
Nothing was done at the Novеmber term in the way of a trial or a further application for continuance. The November term having ended and the January 1964 tеrm having commenced, the defendants on January 10, 1964, filed their separate motions to dismiss under rule 215.1. The motions were each deniеd by the trial court, and we granted leave to the defendants to appeal.
On November 6, 1963, which was during the November term, the plaintiffs filed a certificate of readiness for trial. Objections were filed by the defendants on November 13 next, and amendments to answеrs were filed by the defendants during the Novem *397 ber term, and these motions were undisposed • of at that term. They were, however, ruled upоn by the trial, court at the same time it denied the rule 215.1 motions to dismiss.
I. It is not a pleasant duty to advise litigants that they slept upon their rights and their cases must be dismissed without a trial on the merits. But rule 215.1 is mandatory; it serves a useful purpose in that it prevents unnecessary delays in the disposition of suits, and compels expeditious determinations of the issues involved before they are lost in the mists of legal antiquity. Although the rule has been the subject of several decisions and interpretations, and should be, if it is not, well known to the legal profession, wе set out the material portions again:
“It is the declared policy that in the exercise of reasonable diligence еvery civil and special action, except under unusual circumstances, shall be brought to issue and tried within one year from the dаte it is filed and docketed and in most instances within a shorter time.
“All cases at law or in equity where the petition has been filed more than one year prior to July 15 of any year shall be for trial at the next term commencing after August 15 of said year. The clerk shall рrior to August 15 give notice to counsel of record as provided in rule 82 of:
“(a) the docket number,
“ (b) the names of parties,
“(c) counsel appearing,
“(d) date of filing petition,
and the notice shall state that such case will be. for trial and subject to dismissal if not tried in the next succeeding term pursuant to this rule. All such cases shall be assigned and tried or disr missed without prejudiсe at plaintiff’s costs unless satisfactory reasons for want of prosecution or grounds for continuance be shown by apрlication and ruling thereon after notice and not ex parte.”
The substantial question now before us concerns the effeсt of the continuance to the November 1963 term. Did this take the case entirely out of the application of the rule, until the next July 15, when another notice must be given; or did it merély *398 continúe it to the “term certain”, leaving-all other- aspects still in force and effect. To ask the question seems to us to answer it.
A “continuance” generally means only that the date of hearing or trial is postрoned. It does not affect the merits of the case; it does, not change any rulings that have been made; it leaves all mattеrs as they were before, except that the time is extended. In State v. Rourick,
So in the case at bar, the continuance was to a “tеrm certain”. The plaintiffs had one more term in which to bring their case to trial, or otherwise to dispose of it. They might have asked а further continuance; but they did nothing. We see no escape from the conclusion that the application of rule 215.1 was not otherwise changed. To hold with the plaintiffs and'the trial court would mean that a continuance for one term would abrogatе the rule for the entire remainder of the year, and compel a new notice aftér the next' July 15 date was reached. We cannot agree with this- interpretation; : '
II. The plaintiffs have filed no brief and argument in this court, and so we are left in doubt as to their position and that of the trial court. If it be that the defendants were in some measure responsible for the delay in trial because of the motions they had filed and which were undisposed of at the close of the November term, this is answered in Windus v. Great Plains Gas, 255 Iowa. 587, 597,
That there are undecided motions, or applications, or even that the case is not at issue, may well be persuasive grounds for a continuance; but if none is asked and granted, the rule is mandatоry. Without doubt, it assumes that all such matters will be disposed of in the time outlined in the rule between the com'mencement of the1 actiоn and the giving of notice to “try or dismiss’’; and-if the- case is not brought fully to -issue and is not *399 ready for trial, for any reason, an application for continuance gives an effective mode of prevention of dismissal.
In Talbot v. Talbot,
III. •. The оperation-of rule 215.1 is mandatory and,Automatic. That is, after the “try or dismiss” term, as extended by the continuance had expired, the defendants were entitled to a judgment of' dismissal without prejudice'as 'á 'matter' of right. The court had no discretion as to dismissing or not dismissing. Talbot v. Talbot, 255. Iowa 337, 341,