Adams v. ReQua
Adams v. ReQua
Opinion of the Court
The Chief Justice delivered the opinion of the court:
The plaintiff made her motion in the Circuit Court of Duval county to amend a judgment rendered in the Circuit Court of said county on the 12th day of November, A. D. 1879, wherein she was plaintiff for the use of Edward Higgins, and “John S. Driggs, Administrator of J. S. Adams, deceased,” was defendant.
The object of the motion was that the judgment and execution should be so amended as that it should appear thereon that they were awarded against John S. Driggs, as administrator de bonis non, cum testamento annexo, of J. S.
The rule that the record admits of no alteration after the term, is obsolete. Freeman on Judgments, sec. 71. What is proper data to authorize an amendment, is a matter on which the decisions of the courts of the different States are contradictory. The better opinion seems to be that no record can be amended but by matter of record. Pittman vs. Law, 24 Georgia, 429 ; Fennell vs. Jones, 7 Bush, 359 ; Stephens vs. Wilson, 14 B. Monroe, 88 ; Makepeace vs. Lukeus, 27 Ind., 435; Moody vs. Grant, 41 Miss., 565.
The record, the judgment and the execution contained in which is sought to be amended, shows that a suit was brought against John S. Briggs, administrator of J. S. Adams, deceased, on two promissory notes alleged to have-been made by said Adams, in his life-time, and contains no-statement of any cause of action against Briggs individually. It was unquestionably a claim or demand against Briggs in his representative capacity and must have been so understood by all the parties to the suit. In a similar-case in New York, and which has mainly contributed to-our conclusion, (Beers vs. Shannon, 73 N. Y., 292,) the suit was entitled “ John L. Beers, executor of the last will and testament of John Beers, deceased.”
The court say: “ The first point made by the defendant is this, that the action is not brought by the plaintiff in a, character representative of the deceased obligee. This is
“ The remedy was patent and easy by motion to amend.” Ib.; see also Stillwell vs. Carpenter, 62 N. Y., 639; Shand vs. Hauly, 71 N. Y., 222 ; Snead vs. Coleman, 7 Grattan, 300.
The judgment should have been properly against Briggs in his representative capacity, (Branch vs. Branch, 6 Fla., 314,) but under our liberal system of amendments which makes it the “duty of the courts of this State, and of every
There is no error in the record and the judgment is affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Charles S. Adams, Administrator, &c., in Error v. Helen ReQua, for use of Edwin Higgins, in Error Charles S. Adams, Administrator, &c., in Error v. A. J. Wakefield and Edwin Higgins, in Error
- Cited By
- 6 cases
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- 1. The rule is settled that a' judgment rendered at one term may be amended at a subsequent term, nunc pro tunc, when from an inspection of tbe record in tbe cause it is apparent that the proposed amendment would have been a part of the original judgment or that the original judgment would have been in accordance therewith, had it not have been for the inadvertence of the court or an error or omission of the cleric. 2. When a suit is brought against an administrator of an estate and judgment rendered adding only after his name “administrator of estate of J. S. Adams,” and the whole record shows that the suit was based on a claim or demand against the deceased person of whose estate the defendant is administrator, the court will, on motion, at a subsequent term, permit the record to be amended so as to show that the defendant was sued and judgment rendered against him “as administrator of J. S. Adams, deceased.”