45 Neb. 333 | Neb. | 1895
This is an appeal from a decree of the district court for Douglas county dismissing the petition of the plaintiff by which he seeks to set aside a deed executed by him to the defendant Lane for lot 10, in block 34, in Kountze Place, in the city of Omaha; also to set aside a deed for the same property fro.m John F. Boyd, master commissioner, to Henry F. Cady, and a deed from said Cady to Lane, also for leave to redeem said property. The material facts are as follows: On the 5th day of July, 1888, Andrew J.
There are two facts appearing from the foregoing statement to which especial prominence is given in the brief of counsel, viz.: (1) That Mrs; Bartlett, through- whom the
“ 15. All motions relating to actions, except such as are made at or during the progress of a trial or hearing, or not incident to or relate to the time of trial, or are grantable of course without'notice, must be in writing, and filed, unless the court shall see fit to dispense therewith, when the motion is made in open court, in the presence of counsel for*336 the adverse party; and notice for the hearing of all such motions must be given as required by statute or these rules.
“16. A motion docket will be furnished for the use of the bar, and the filing of a motion, and the entry in such docket of notice of the motion, or the hearing of a demurrer, and entering the title of the cause in. which it is filed, with date of entry, together with a brief statement of the object of the motion and the names of the attorneys of record in the cause for twenty-four hours before the morning of motion day, shall be notice thereof to the opposite party in all cases where a different notice is not required by statute.”
It is argued that inasmuch as no provision has been made for the issuing and service of a formal summons upon the filing by a defendant of a pleading in the nature of a cross-bill, the character of the notice required and the time for pleading thereto is a subject within the jurisdiction of the court, and for an error of judgment in that regard the remedy is by motion to set aside the decree or other direct proceeding. It is further argued that it is within the power of the district court by rule to provide for notice in such cases; that under the rules above quoted, the entry in the motion docket was notice to each of the defendants of the cross-bill in question, and that the failure to give other or different notice presents a mere irregularity in nowise affecting the jurisdiction of the court. But the weakness of that argument is that it assumes the very proposition in dispute, viz., the jurisdiction over the parties adverse to Gray in the former suit for the purpose of any order, since it is only those parties who are brought within the jurisdiction of the district court by its process or otherwise whp are required to take notice of its rules. Recurring to the question first suggested, it may be said that if the court by its summons in the former suit acquired jurisdiction of the defendant, for the purpose of the
A cross-bill is brought by a defendant in a suit against the plaintiff or defendant in the same suit, or against both touching the matters in question in the original bill (2 Daniell, Chancery Practice [4th ed.], 1548; Story, Equity Pleading, sec. 389; 1 Hoffman, Chancery Practice, 455), and is generally considered as a defense, or as a proceeding to procure a complete determination of a matter already in litigation. (2 Daniell, Chancery Practice [4th ed.], 1548.) The appearance of parties adverse to the complainant in a cross-bill was enforced by subpoena in the same manner as in case of an original bill. (1 Smith, Chancery Practice, 461*.) But a wide departure from that practice has been countenanced by the courts of this country, particularly in actions in rem where the defendants are by the original bill required to disclose their interests in the subject of the controversy. For instance, in Pattison v. Vaughan, 40 Ind., 253, it is said : “We think that as to matters contained in the original complaint, if not in all eases, the defendants to the original complaint, when served with process thereon, as well as the plaintiff therein, must be regarded as in court for all the purposes of the action, whether the matter in controversy arise upon the original complaint or upon the answer or cross-complaint.” This language is quoted with approval by Judge Elliott in Bevier v. Kahn, 111 Ind., 200, in which it is held that notice is unnecessary when the original bill discloses the character of the claim of the cross-bill. And in Gregory v. Pike, 29 Fed. Rep., 588, it is said that a cross-bill, being auxiliary to the original bill, service thereof may be had on the attorney of record, and it is no objection that the party himself is out of the jurisdiction of the court. (See, also, Work, Jurisdiction, sec. 44.) The
The conclusion stated renders unnecessary an examination of the other questions presented by the record.
Decree affirmed.