Bever v. Beardmore
Bever v. Beardmore
Opinion of the Court
Plaintiff in error, Bever, was plaintiff below. In the common pleas his petition was dismissed, and on error the district court affirmed the judgment. To reverse this judgment of affirmance this case is here. The object of the proceeding in the common pleas, was to vacate a judgment rendered at a former term of the same court of common pleas, as provided in section 536 of the code (S. & C., 1115). The judgment was taken on warrant of attorney in favor of the defendant in error, Beardmore, against plaintiff herein and Abram Mann, William Foreaker and John Booth, his sureties, and without legal notice to them of the time and place. It was rendered jointly against them all on joint and several promissory notes, and was
“ This cause came on for hearing, and was submitted to the Court on the pleadings and evidence. And the court being fulty advised in the premises, on the request of the plaintiff that its conclusions of fact be stated separately from its conclusions of law, with a view to excepting to the decision of the court upon the questions of law involved in the trial, finds as its conclusions of fact, that there was included in the notes upon which judgment was taken by confession, a large amount of usurious interest, and that the plaintiff John Bever was the principal in said notes, and the defendants,. John Booth, Abram Mann and William Foreaker were his sureties only, which was known to the said William Beardmore, at the time he received and accepted said notes and powers of attorney. And that said defendants had a valid defense to said notes upon which said judgment was taken by confession, to the amount of the usurious interest included therein, amounting to several hundred dollars ; and the court further finds that the defendants, Mann, Foreaker and Booth had notice of the rendition .of the judgment upon confession, at or about the day of its rendition. That at the date of the execution of the note and warrant last mentioned in the petition upon which said*77 judgment was taken, to wit: January 24, 1874, it was agreed between the said John Bever, William Beardmore, Abram Mann, William Foreaker and John Booth, that judgment should be taken at the then next term of this court to commence February 3, 1874, upon all the notes and warrants of attorney, which were included in said petition and judgment. That said term closed on the 16th day of February, 1874; that no summons or other further notice was served upon or given to said Beaver of the rendition of said judgment, and that he had no notice that said judgment had been rendered, or the amount thereof, until the 18th day of March, 1874. That proceedings were commenced by said Bever against said Beardmore only, on the 20th day of February, A. D., 1875, and that said Mann, Foreaker and Booth were not made parties to the proceeding until the 13th day of June, 1876. And as to its conclusions of law upon the above found facts the court finds that the proceedings herein were not commenced within the period required by law, and dismiss the same with costs. It is therefore considered by the court that said cause be, and the same is hereby dismissed at the costs of the said plaintiff, which costs are here adjudged against said plaintiff.”
The question to be decided is, Was the proceeding brought within the time limited in section 541, that is, “ within one year after the defendant has notice of the judgment.” We think there can be no doubt, that, if the plaintiff had made the sureties parties to his original peti-. tion, or brought them in by amendment within the year after notice to him, the proceeding would have been duly commenced as to all. The petition was filed within the year after the plaintiff had such notice, but more than a year after each of the sureties had the notice. To that petition the sureties were not parties. And when they were brought in more than a year had elapsed after notice to all the judgment defendants, including Bever. All the defendants in a joint judgment are necessary parties to a petition in error to vacate it. Smetters’ case, 14 Ohio St., 287. This is the well settled rule of courts restricted to the ex
The judgment creditor may not complain of the delay
In that case the holding related to a party shown on the face of the judgment to be merely formal. In that respect it differs from this case. But the principle of that case has weight here, because the sureties as parties are concluded by this record, made since the rendition of the judgment, and in which record no adverse interest in their behalf is shown. Be this as it may, we are not prepared to say that the analogy between a petition in error in an appellate court and this proceeding in the common pleas, is so perfect as to require us to hold the delay under consideration, a circumstance affecting the jurisdiction of the court. We think the district court erred in affirming the judgment of the common pleas.
Objection is made in argument that the sureties are not styled as parties in the petition to this court. Their appearance is duly entered and service of process waived as appears in the printed record. This is sufficient.
Judgment reversed and cause remanded.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.