Court Opinion

ID: 9678532
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 06:22:12.119846+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:05.301915
License: Public Domain

ON MOTION FOR REHEARING
Defendants raise in their motion for rehearing several questions deserving fur*879ther discussion. They assert that we erred in holding that the issues disregarded by the trial judge related only to the theory of waiver. These issues, they insist, were also components of and were referable to plaintiff’s theory of limitation, and defendants argue that we cannot properly deem any issues found in favor of a judgment rendered in disregard of any jury findings.
We adhere to the views stated in our original opinion. We did not consider the disregarded findings as bearing on the issue of limitation because they did not inquire concerning defendant’s knowledge on August 22, 1973, two years before defendants filed their counterclaim alleging fraud. Rather, those issues inquired concerning defendants’ knowledge on certain dates in 1970, 1971, and 1972, when the renewal notes were signed. Those dates would be significant only on the theory of waiver or ratification. The answers, if allowed to stand, would not have negated the defense of limitation because they did not establish that defendants had no knowledge of the fraud on August 22, 1973, two years before the counterclaim was filed. We recognize that if the issues in question had been answered in plaintiff’s favor, they might have affected the period of limitation because if defendants had known of the fraud in 1970, 1971, and 1972, limitation would have begun to run even before August 22, 1973. In that event, however, knowledge of the fraud at the time of execution of the renewal notes would have established the defense of waiver or ratification, and limitation would have been immaterial. Consequently, we do not view the disregarded issues as bearing on limitation as a defense to the counterclaim.
Defendants further contend that we erred in failing to hold that the trial court erred in disregarding the answers to the waiver issues which were favorable to defendants, and in rendering judgment notwithstanding those answers. We held that the court erred in rendering judgment on the main claim notwithstanding those answers because, even if they were properly disregarded, the element of materiality was not submitted, and no finding on the omitted issue could be deemed in support of a judgment notwithstanding the jury’s answers. Thus, in our view of the case, plaintiff failed to establish waiver and it was not necessary to consider whether there was evidence to support the disregarded answers.
In our original opinion we did not discuss the bearing of the waiver issues on the counterclaim because if waiver of the fraud was not established with respect to the main claim, neither was it established with respect to the counterclaim. We did not hold that the judgment against defendant on their counterclaim can be supported on the theory of waiver or on the action of the judge in disregarding some of the answers to the waiver issues. We hold that the judgment on the counterclaim is supported by the independent defense of limitation, as submitted in issues number seven, eight, nine, and thirteen, which inquired about defendants’ knowledge at the crucial time with respect to limitation, namely, August 22, 1973. Consequently, we still need not consider whether the court erred in disregarding any of the answers to the waiver issues.
Since the judgment against defendants on their counterclaim is based on the jury’s answers to the limitation issues, rather than on the court’s action in disregarding some of the answers to the waiver issues, we regard that judgment as one on the verdict rather than a judgment notwithstanding the jury’s answers. Consequently, if issues number seven, eight, nine and thirteen did not submit all components of the limitation defense, we must deem any unsubmitted component found in support of the judgment in the absence of any objection to the issues brought forward here as ground for a new trial, as we held in our opinion.
Defendants now call our attention to the objections they made to the limitation issues in the trial court and have moved for leave to supplement the transcript by bringing forward those objections. We do not regard the objections as material at this stage of the litigation. None of the points *880on this appeal complain of the trial court’s rulings on the objections, and it is too late to consider whether a new trial should be granted on this ground. Our former opinion was not based on defendants’ failure to object to the limitation issues. We held, rather, that in the absence of any contention on appeal that a new trial should be granted because of any defects pointed out by such objections, we could not reverse the trial court’s judgment and render judgment in defendants’ favor on the theory that these issues did not submit all the elements of the limitation defense.
Defendants’ motion for rehearing and motion to file supplemental transcript are overruled.