Shenkberg Co. v. Maloy
Shenkberg Co. v. Maloy
Concurring Opinion
I concur in the result reached- in t'he foregoing opinion, but prefer to- base my concurrence solely upon the ground that it does- noit appear but that the statute of limitation had -run against the original claim- at the time appellant first learned of this judgment.
Opinion of the Court
The record in on appeal presents a novel situation. The defendant, “Maggie” Maloy,- was the owner of real property in Yankton County, title to- which stood in her name as “Maggie” Maloy. On a piece of land cornering upon said tract resided another woman, by the name of “Margaret” Maloy. In December, 1898, plaintiff, claiming an indebtedness in its favor against defendant, undertook to put said claim into judgment, but instead of naming Maggie Maloy as defendant, it named “Maigaret” Maloy, and served the summons in that action on “Margaret” M-aloy. Judgment was entered in said action, on the 19th day of January, 1899. Some time in 1903, execution was issued thereon and a levy was made upon defendant’s property, notice of sale was published and an appraisment of the property levied upon — which was a homestead — was made, but no sale ever took place. About the time of the issuance of -said execution, some negotiations took place between the defendant in this action and the sheriff of the county, and, át a later date, between the respective attorneys representing plaintiff and defendant, relative to the payment of said judgment; but no part thereof was ever paid. No further effort appears to have been made to- collect the judgment, and, 0:1 the 24th day of January, 1910, plaintiff applied to the court for leave to sue upon said judgment. Notice of this application was personally'' served upon the defendant, but she made no appearance of any kind. The application was granted, and this action was immediately commenced. In its complaint, plaintiff pleaded the entry of judgment in January, 1899, as above stated, and alleged that no part thereof had ever been paid. De
Appellant’s right to maintain this appeal because not taken within- the itime prescribed by law is questioned by respondent, and a considerable portion of its -printed- brief is- devoted to this question. But this matter was -disposed of by this court u-pon a motion made by respondent to dismiss -the appeal, and i-t will receive no further notice.
“Mrs. Ma-loy told me that she did not have any money; that she would like to- pay it, but she couldn’t.”
This is far short of a promise to pay the judgment. It may amount to an admission that there was an indebtedness due from her to plaintiff, but it is. not a promise to pay nor even an intimation that she ever intended to pay.
“Maggie Maloy is now estopped from questioning the validity of the original judgment entered herein-.against her under the name of Margaret Maloy.”
This conclusion must be supported, if at all, by the three remaining facts that appear from the record; First, that the defendant did not inform the sheriff, when he told her that he had an execution against her, that no summons had ever been served upon her; second, that she did not, after learning that a judgment had been entered, move to have the judgment set.aside; and, third, that she did not appear and resist plaintiff’s application for leave to sue upon the judgment. This, court, in Eickelberg v. Soper, 1 S. D. 563, 47 N. W. 953, enumerated the various steps necessary to constitute an estoppel as follows:
“To constitute an equitable estoppel there must be (1) a false representation or a concealment of material facts; (2) the representation must have been made with knowledge of the facts; (3) the party to whom it was made must have been ignorant, actually*108 and permissibly, of the truth of the matter; (4) it must have been made with the intention that the other party should act upon it; and (5) the other party must have been induced to act upon it,” citing Bigelow, Estop. (5 Ed.) p. 570. Tested by this rule, has defendant done, or omitted to do, any act that should now prevent her from saying that the judgment was entered against Margaret Maloy, on the 19th day of January, 1899, is not binding upon her? We think not. In the first place, we know of no legal obligation resting upon her to point out the mistakes of her adversary; in the second place, it does not appear that she, intentionally, concealed any material fact from the sheriff when she learned that he had an execution against her. It rloes not appear that, at that time, she knew that she was not the defendant that was named in the action, or that it was necessary that a summons should be served upon her in order to procure a valid judgment against her.
Her failure to move to set aside the judgment constitutes no ' ground for an estoppel. She was not the party named as defendant in that action, had never been served with a summons, and the judgment entered therein was not a lien against her property. No reason is shown why she should have appeared in an action to which she was not a party and in the result of which she had no interest; neither was she under obligations to appear and resist plaintiff's application for leave to sue. The only reason she could have urged at that hearing why suit should not be commenced upon the judgment in question was the fact constituting the defense set up in her answer in this case. Her defense was that no judgment had ever been entered against her. This defense presented an issue of fact that she had a right to have tried by a jury and that she could not, in any event, be required to submit to the court upon affidavits in an application for leave to sue upon a judgment. The fact that the defendant stipulated to try the action to the court without a jury in nowise affected her rights in the matter.
What has already been said disposes of the finding of fact that the cause of action on which said judgment was rendered had been barred by the statute of limitations prior to -the commencement of this action. The defendant was in no wise responsible for plaintiff’s mistake in naming and serving the wrong party as defendant in that action; neither did she, by any act or omis
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.