Barnes v. Evans
Barnes v. Evans
Opinion of the Court
The appeal in this case is from a judgment of nonsuit. Jack Barnes, plaintiff in the court below, appellant here, brought suit against L. C. Evans, defendant below, appellee here. After plaintiff had introduced his evidence and rested, defendant moved to exclude all of the testimony offered by plaintiff and to discharge the jury, for that the evidence did not make a prima facie case for plaintiff under his complaint. The trial court granted this motion and the transcript of evidence shows plaintiff moved for a nonsuit with leave to appeal.
There are two judgment entries in the record before us. One bears date of January 15, 1957, disclosing a final judgment for defendant in the ordinary form, not of nonsuit. The other bears date- of February 22, 1957. It is in form a judgment of nonsuit on plaintiff’s motion. The security for costs shows that the appeal is from the judgment rendered on February 22, 1957.
There is nothing in the record showing that there was any intervening motion of any kind between January 15th and February 22nd — a lapse of some thirty-eight days — nor anything to show that the trial court in any manner retained jurisdiction of the cause after the final judgment of January 15th. By statute it is provided that “after the lapse of thirty days from the date on which a judgment or decree was rendered, the [circuit] court
While in no event would we have any other alternative than to dismiss, we think it not improper to observe that had the judgment appealed from been valid, we would have been constrained to affirm. Our study of the whole record before discovery of the defect in the judgment convinced us the plaintiff’s evidence fell short of the required prima facie quality, and thus the action of the trial court was clearly sustained.
Appeal dismissed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Jack Barnes v. L. C. Evans.
- Cited By
- 3 cases
- Status
- Published