Case Name: KNOLL v. KNOLL
Court: Louisiana Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Louisiana
Decision Date: 1905-03-13
Citations: 114 La. 703
Docket Number: No. 15,528
Parties: KNOLL v. KNOLL.
Judges: 
Reporter: Louisiana Reports
Volume: 114
Pages: 703–707

Head Matter:
(38 South. 523.)
No. 15,528.
KNOLL v. KNOLL.
(March 13, 1905.
On Rehearing May 8, 1905.)
DIVORCE — CUSTODY OF CHILDREN — APPEAL — PROCEDURE — BOND—ORDER GRANTING APPEAL — SIGNATURE.
1. An order granting an appeal on motion in ■open court, and duly entered on the minutes, need not be signed by the judge.
2. Act No. 49, p. 151, of 1871, allowing 30 days within which to take a .suspensive appeal in cases of divorce, is not applicable to cases ■of separation from bed and board.
3. Though the prayer and the order were for a suspensive appeal solely, the appeal will be sustained as devolutive if the amount of the bond was fixed in the order.
On the Merits.
4.When, in a suit by the husband, praying that he be awarded a judgment of separation from bed and board and the custody of his minor children, the wife pleads the general issue, and the evidence fails to support the demand for separation, but shows that the parties have been living apart for more than two years,- that the children have remained during that time in the custody of the plaintiff, at the home of his mother, and that he is a man of good character, and further shows that the defendant, who does not ask that the children be given to her, is not in a position to take care of them, and (negatively) that she is satisfied with the existing arrangement, the custody of the children will be awarded to the plaintiff, subject to the right of the defendant to see them, and to such further disposition in the future as occasion may require.
(Syllabus by the Court.)
Appeal from CiviJ District Court, Parish of Orleans; Fred D. King, Judge.
Action by Edward Knoll against Wilhelmena Knoll. From a judgment for defendant, plaintiff appeals.
Modified.
John Howard- Ferguson, for appellant George Montgomery, for appellee.

Opinion:
On Motion to Dismiss.
PROVOSTY, J.
An order granting an appeal on motion in open court, and duly entered on the minutes, need not be signed by the judge. No law requires it to be signed by the judge, and it is sufficiently authenticated by being entered on the minutes.
Act No. 49, p. 151, of 1871, amends article 573 of the Code of Practice by adding thereto the following:
"But in cases where the judgment decrees a divorce, such petition or motion of appeal must be filed within 30 days not including Sundays, after the signing of such judgment, instead of 10 days, and shall operate as a suspensive appeal therefrom, and there shall be no devolutive appeal allowed thereafter."
This act in distinct terms applies only to cases of divorce. It does not apply to cases of separation from bed and board. A separation -from bed and board is not a divorce. The Code treats of the two sep arately. Thus the rubric of title 5 of the Code is "Of separation from bed and board, .and of divorce." And the rubric of chapter 1 under that title is "Of the causes of separation from bed and board, and of divorce." And different causes are assigned for the two. True, a divorce may grow out of a separation from bed and board, but so do "tall oaks from little acorns grow."
The appeal in this case, having been taken after the expiration of the 10 days, is not suspensive, but it is good as a devolutive appeal. "Though the prayer and the order were for a suspensive appeal solely, the appeal will be sustained as devolutive, if the amount of the bond was fixed in the order." Succession of Keller, 39 La. Ann. 579, 2 South. 553; Succession of Bey, 47 La. Ann. 219, 16 South. 825; Michenor v. Reinack, 49 La. Ann. 360, 21 South. 552; Weil v. Schwartz, 51 La. Ann. 1547, 26 South. 475; Succession of Watt, 111 La. 937, 36 South. 31.
The appeal is therefore dismissed as a suspensive appeal, but is maintained as a devolutive appeal.