Title: Hutchison v. Wheeler

State: indiana

Issuer: Indiana Supreme Court

Document:

251 Ind. 386 (1968)
241 N.E.2d 261
HUTCHISON ET AL
v.
WHEELER ET AL.
No. 867S70.

Supreme Court of Indiana.
Filed November 7, 1968.
William L. Thompson, Salem, Jacob G. Rudy, New Albany, for appellants. Allen and Thompson, Orbison, Rudy and O'Connor, of counsel.
*387 Lorch and Lorch, New Albany, Gossman, Gossman and Gossman, Seymour, and Hamill and Price, Indianapolis, for appellees.
HUNTER, J.
This case arose out of the condemnation of certain lands by the Board of County Commissioners of Washington County, Indiana, pursuant to the power vested in it by Ind. Anno. Stat. § 36-301, et seq. The lands condemned were owned by the various appellants and appellants filed a remonstrance to the decision taken by the Board. The decision and order of the Board was appealed to the Washington Circuit Court and, after jury trial in January, 1961, a mistrial was declared due to the inability of the jury to reach a verdict. Thereafter, appellants filed and the court granted a motion for change of venue from the county. The cause was ordered venued to the Floyd Circuit Court and the remonstrators paid the fees as ordered. Thereafter, on April 21, 1961, the Clerk of the Washington Circuit Court sent the transcript of the proceedings theretofore had in this matter to the Floyd Circuit Court and certified that said transcript included all papers and entries that were a part of the action.
Due to a series of delays not explained in the record, the cause lay dormant until mid-May, 1967. On May 22, 1967, before any evidence was heard in the Floyd Circuit Court, a motion was filed by the Board of County Commissioners of Washington County to dismiss the action because the transscript certified to the Floyd Circuit Court did not contain a remonstrance. It was the Board's position that without a remonstrance in the record there was no issue to be tried. The remonstrators immediately moved the court for an order requiring the Clerk of the Washington Circuit Court to complete the transcript. The Floyd Circuit Court then denied the remonstrator's motion, granted the Board's motion to dismiss, and this appeal by the remonstrators followed. The appellants have alleged:
Ind. Anno. Stat. § 2-1406 (1967 Repl.) reads as follows:
Insofar as it is in conflict with Rule 1-12B of the Rules of the Supreme Court of Indiana, this statute is superceded. However, nothing in Rule 1-12B contradicts or abrogates the ministerial duty of the clerk of the original court to "transmit all the papers and a transcript of all the proceedings" to the county to which the venue is changed.
The case of Cooper et ux. v. The Arctic Ditchers (1877), 56 Ind. 233, although decided four years prior to the enactment of Ind. Anno. Stat. § 2-1406, supra, dealt with substantially similar statutory language, and, therefore, is relevant here. *389 In that case, a motion for change of venue was granted by the Tipton Circuit Court, and the cause was venued to the Howard Circuit Court. However, the Clerk of the Tipton Circuit Court failed to make out and certify the transcript to the Howard Circuit Court within the time required by law, and, as a consequence, the latter court sustained a motion to remand the case to Tipton County. This court reversed the remand order of the Howard Circuit Court, and in doing so, made the following statement regarding the duty of the movant in perfecting a change of venue:
Four years after the decision in Cooper, supra, the General Assembly passed the statute which is presently codified as Ind. Anno. Stat. § 2-1406, supra. See Acts 1881 (Spec. Sess.) ch. 38, § 256. This, in the absence of any contrary indications, strongly supports the inference that the statutory language regarding the duty of the clerk, which had been previously construed by this court and which then was substantially reenacted in 1881, should receive the identical construction in the new statute. Dill v. Fraze (1907), 169 Ind. 53, 79 N.E. 971.
In view of the foregoing, it is our holding that the party to whom a change of venue is granted has no duty to oversee *390 or supervise the clerk of the court in order to insure transmission of all the necessary papers and records to the county to which the venue is changed. This involves a purely ministerial duty of the clerk of the original court, and once the movant has paid the costs associated with the change of venue, he has the right to expect that the entire record and all the papers theretofore filed in the cause will be certified to the new forum. This case is reversed and remanded to the Floyd Circuit Court with instructions to rescind its order dismissing this case and to grant the appellants' motion to require the Clerk of the Washington Circuit Court to complete the transcript of change of venue, and for further proceedings on the merits of the case.
Judgment reversed.
Lewis, C.J., Arterburn, DeBruler, and Jackson, JJ., concur.
NOTE.  Reported in 241 N.E.2d 261.