193 Ind. 509 | Ind. | 1923
The petitioners herein will be referred to as the appellant, and the adverse party as the appellee. On June 2, 1922, a motion for a new trial filed in this action by appellant was overruled, and a judgment for $12,000 recovered by appellee on a claim against the decedent’s estate represented by appellant became absolute. The court allowed 120 days to file á bill of exceptions, and on the afternoon of September 30, being the 120th day, a bill of exceptions containing the evidence was duly presented to the trial judge, signed by him, and filed. The decision having grown out of a matter connected with the estate of a decedent, the statute allowed .only 120 days after the date of rendering judgment in which to perfect an appeal, unless the time should be extended in some manner known to the law. §2978 Burns 1914, Acts 1913 p. 66, §3. Ewbank’s Manual (2d ed.) §104, and authorities cited.
In the first thirty days after judgment was rendered, appellant did nothing but procure the evidence, or a part of it, to be written out in long hand by the court stenographer, and counsel admit that he is not within the statutory provision (§2978 supra) that the court to which the appeal is taken may, for good cause shown, extend the time for filing an appeal bond, with resulting extension of the time for filing the transcript and as
Complaining of the failure of the clerk to prepare and certify within the time promised, a complete transcript, as he was directed, appellant does not show that he filed what he found written up on the last day for taking an appeal, and then applied for a writ of certiorari to bring up the omitted parts. §710 Burns 1914, §668 R. S. 1881; Rule 32 Supreme Court; Cook Brewing Co. v. Ball (1899), 22 Ind. App. 656, 658, 52 N. E. 1002; Ewbank’s Manual (2d ed.) §210, et seq. But he invokes the inherent power of the court to relieve a party from the consequences of an accident or mistake, or a failure of duty on the part of an officer of the court, where such party has diligently performed his duty in the matter of perfecting the appeal, and the failure fully to perfect it in time was not due to his own default or negligence. See Bank of Westfield v. Inman (1892), 133 Ind. 287, 33 N. E. 885; Hutts v. Martin (1892), 131 Ind. 1, 30 N. E. 698, 31 Am. St. 412; Hitt v. Carr (1921), 77 Ind. App. 488, 130 N. E. 1.
The parties have filed affidavits and counter-affidavits, from which we gather the following facts:
The action was commenced in Clay County, and was taken by change of venue to' Putnam County, where local attorneys were employed who helped to try the case, and when the motion for a new trial was over-ruled on June 2, 1922, they reserved an exception on behalf of appellant, and procured an order granting 120 days to file a bill of exceptions, but thereafter had no further employment in the case. The attorney originally employed by appellant, who lives at Brazil, in Clay County, Indiana, has had exclusive charge of all proceedings since the motion for a new trial was overruled. Immediately thereafter, he directed the official court reporter'to prepare a bill of exceptions containing
The deputy clerk, after receiving said verbal order in July, and prior to September 4, had written out practically all of the transcript no.w offered for filing, but had been unable to find a motion filed by the defendant (appellant) to strike out parts of the fourth paragraph of the claim sued on, or to find a set of instructions tendered by defendant (appellant) and refused by the court, as shown by entries in the order-book. The clerk and his deputy did not notify appellant nor any of his attorneys of such inability to find said motion and requested instructions, but continued to search for them, believing that appellant had 180 days in which to' appeal. It does not appear that appellant, or his attorney, or anybody on appellant’s behalf, communicated in any way with the clerk or deputy clerk after the verbal order for a transcript was given in July until the afternoon of September 30. His said attorney spent the forenoon of that day in the Clay Circuit Court at Brazil, arguing a matter before a special judge, and at 12:50 p. m. left on an interurban car for Greencastle, where he arrived at 1:25 p. m. and procured the bill of exceptions to be completed, and at 1:50 p. m. procured the judge to sign it, after which
But the petition and affidavits state that appellant and his said attorney intended to bring the transcript to Indianapolis on the afternoon of September 30, if it had been completed, taking passage on an interurban car due to leave Greencastle at 2:15 p.m. and due to arrive in Indianapolis at 3:57 p.m. or on a later car leaving at 3:20 and arriving at 4:45 p.m. and, upon arrival in Indianapolis, intended immediately to take the transcript to the office of the clerk of this court and leave it there for filing; that they expected to have the transcript put into the clerk’s office by “some custodian at the State House”, relying on a custom on the part of the clerk, which they make oath now exists and has existed “many years”, of which they say they had knowledge, for the clerk to file, as of the day they were placed there, papers which he may find in his office after a holiday. Other facts are stated by way of explaining why counsel waited until the last day before procuring the bill of exceptions to be signed and filed, when the reporter had returned to Greencastle on September 25, and a certified copy of the lost deed had been obtained a week before that; and also showing that if accepted and filed, the transcript and assignment of errors will present for decision an important question of law. And it is averred that late in the afternoon of September 30, appellant’s said attorney called an attorney at Indianapolis by telephone, and told him the transcript could hot be completed in time, and
As we understand the statements in the affidavits, appellant is now offering to file exactly the same transcript which had been written at the time his attorney procured the bill of exceptions to be signed and filed, except that his praecipe, dated October 9, was inserted, the clerk’s certificate of that date was attached, an assignment of errors, an index and certain marginal notes have been supplied, and the transcript has been bound in “boards.”
So far as appears, he might have supplied this praecipe and had the clerk’s certificate attached on September 30, and have come to Indianapolis that afternoon.
Whether depositing the transcript in the clerk’s office without his knowledge would have been a sufficient filing, or whether appellant would have been required to find the clerk and deliver the transcript to him is a question not before us as to which we intimate no opinion.
It does not appear that there was anything which prevented appellant and his counsel from knowing the exact stage which had been reached in copying the transcript, nor the reason why more had not been done in that behalf, at any time after September 4, except that they did not inquire, though counsel had kno.wn since July 15, the day when he gave the verbal order for a complete transcript, that a deed which had been read in evidence was lost, and on September 11, had written to opposing counsel about it, and on September 16, had ordered a certified copy, which was afterward substituted for that lost instrument. July 15, when he first knew that a paper used at the trial was lost, was five and a half months after the trial end.ed, and
We do not think the facts shown call for an exercise of the inherent power of the court to grant an appeal after the lapse of the time allowed by statute for perfecting the appeal.
The petition is denied.