Case Name: Mrs. L. C. Germaine v. J. M. Harwell et al.
Court: Mississippi Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Mississippi
Decision Date: 1913-03
Citations: 104 Miss. 679
Docket Number: 
Parties: Mrs. L. C. Germaine v. J. M. Harwell et al.
Judges: 
Reporter: Mississippi Reports
Volume: 104
Pages: 679–680

Head Matter:
Mrs. L. C. Germaine v. J. M. Harwell et al.
[61 South. 659.]
Appeal and Error. Disposition. Loss of papers. Reversal.
Where original papers in a case have been lost, so that the merits of the cause cannot be known on appeal to the supreme court, that court will not reverse the case in order that there may be a new trial where the loss of the papers was not the fault of appellee.
Appeal from the chancery court of Lauderdale county.
Hon. Sam Whitman, Jr., Chancellor.
Suit between Mrs. L. C. Germaine and J. M. Harwell and others, in which Mrs. Germaine appeals. On appellant ’s motion to reverse the judgment because of the loss of the original papers by appellees.
The facts are fully stated in the opinion of the court.
Easterling, Potter <& Greaves and Green <& Green, for appellant.
J. M. Harwell, for appellees.
No brief of counsel on either side found in the record.

Opinion:
Reed, J.,
delivered the opinion of the court.
Appellant made a motion to reverse the judgment appealed from, because the original papers from which the record should be made could not be found by the clerk, and appellant averred that they were lost by counsel for appellees. A rule was issued requiring appellees to show cause why the motion should not be sustained, and a commissioner was appointed to take testimony in the matter.
It was decided in the case of Quarles v. Hiern, 70 Miss. 259, 12 South. 145, that where original papers in a case have been lost through the fault of appellee, so that the record cannot be made up, and so that the merits of the cause cannot be known on the appeal, the court will reverse, in order that there may be a new trial. In this case there has been an entire failure to show by the testimony that appellees, or their counsel, lost the papers, of were in any way to blame for the clerk not being able to find them.
Therefore the motion is overruled.
Overruled.