Case Name: FRUTH, Adm'r, Respondent, v. BOLT, et al, Appellant
Court: South Dakota Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: South Dakota
Decision Date: 1916-07-10
Citations: 37 S.D. 393
Docket Number: File No. 3941
Parties: FRUTH, Adm’r, Respondent, v. BOLT, et al, Appellant.
Judges: 
Reporter: South Dakota Reports
Volume: 37
Pages: 393–394

Head Matter:
FRUTH, Adm’r, Respondent, v. BOLT, et al, Appellant.
(158 N. W. 733.)
(File No. 3941.
Opinion filed July 10, 1916.)
1. Pleadings — Complaint—Corporate Existence — Location' of Corporation, Sufficiency.
As against a demurrer, an allegation that defendant is “a corporation .of Hulett, Wyo.,” is sufficient as an allegation of defendants, corporate capacity.
.2. Mortgages — Foreclosure—Complaint—Mortgage to “Deceased” — ■ Construction of Pleading.
• A complaint on foreclosure of a mortgage, alleging the giving of the note and mortgage to plaintiff’s decedent as one “deceased,” is not obnoxious to a general demurrer, where, in another part of the complaint the date of decedent’s subsequent death is set forth.; such allegation does, not show the mortgage a nullity because, given to a dead man; the intent of the whole pleading being,that the papers were executed to one “now deceased.”
Appeal -from Circuit Court, Meade Count}’. . Hon. JamES McNenny, Judge.-
Action' by Henry Truth, Administrator of William- H. Hall, deceased, against Ausna H. Bolt, now known and going under the name of Anna Cox, and' another, to foreclose a mortgage. From an order overruling a demurrer -to the complaint, defendants appeal.-
Affirmed.
Albert Gunderson, for Appellants.
Clmde C. Gray, and W. G. Rice, for .Respondents.
(1) To point one of the'-opinion, Respondent cited: State v. Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul R. R. Co. 4 -S. D., 261: 56 N. W. 894.
(2J To point two of the -opinion, Appellant cited: Hunter v. Wiats-on, 12 Cal. 382, 73 Am. Dec. 543.; Andrews v'. Wynn, 4 S-. D. 40.
Respondent cited: -Code Civ. Pr-o-c. Sec. 153; Caledonia Gold Mining -Co. v. Noonan, 14 N. W. 426 at page 428.

Opinion:
GATES, J.
Action to foreclose a real estate mortgage. The defendants interposed a general -demurrer to- the complaint. From the -order overruling same, defendants -appeal.
It is first urged that there is nothing in the -corn-plaint .to show that -defendant FDul-ett Land & Cattle Company, sued as an artificial being, had- any corporate existence. In one- -paragraph of the .complaint the said1 -defendant is alleged to- be a' subsequent grantee of the property and is referred to as "a corporation of Hu-lett, Wyo." As against a demurrer this is a sufficient allegation of the.corporate capacity of said defendant. . •
Appellants next urge that because the complaint alleges the giving of the note and mortgage on June 9, 1910, to William H. Hall, 'deceased, it clearly appears that the mortgage was a nullity because given to a dead1 man. C. C. § 2042, 915. In construing- the language of' a complaint reference must be had to all its parts. In another paragraph, it is alleged' that William H. Hall died on July 21, 1914, four years after the giving of the note and mortgage to him. Although the language of the complaint is inartistic, it was clearly the intention of the pleader to allege that the note and mortgage were given to William- H. Hall, "now deceased" or "since deceased." The objections raised by the demurrer are ultra-technical and frivolous. In the language of Territorial Justice Francis ini Polk v. Minnehaha Co., 5 Dak. 129, 37 N. W. 93, they are "not even the well-defined ghost of a respectable technicality."
The order appealed from is affirmed.