Court Opinion

ID: 9830781
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-01 20:28:16.14828+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:43:26.620546
License: Public Domain

On Rehearing.
It is earnestly urged on rehearing that we erred in refusing to consider the seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh, and seventeenth assignments of error. Those assignments complain either of the refusal of the court to give certain special charges requested by the appellant or of the action of the court in giving certain special charges requested by appellees. Our refusal to consider the assignments was grounded on the conclusion that no sufficient bill of exception was taken to the action of the court in the respect stated. The purported bill of exceptions shown by the record is obviously the objections leveled against the court’s main charge and certain special charges asked by appellant, such objections being prepared presumably by appellant when the court’s charge with the special charges was presented to appellant for that purpose preliminary to reading same to the jury. In fact such conclusion is sustained by the indorsement of the court that such objections were presented to him before reading his charge to the jury and before argument. There is no order approving same and ordering it filed as a bill of exceptions, in fact no action by the court other than just recited, nor are such objections by law a part of the record of the case. There is, however, another and anomalous feature of the objections. It is recited at the conclusion of the instrument that appellant “excepts to the refusal of the court” to give appellant’s said several special charges and “excepts to each and all the special issues.” With the exception of the notation at the conclusion of the objections they constitute no more than a memoranda showing that objections to the court’s action had been made before trial and would authorize and form the basis of the bill in case the court refused to conform its charge to the objections, and appellant desired to review the court’s action in that respect. Otherwise, it would ap*6pear that the exception was taken before the ruling of the court upon the objections. Rooking at the matter in such manner as will reconcile what is actually contained, in the objections with what 'could have transpired at trial, we assume that all special charges and the court’s general charge was presented to counsel in compliance with the rules, and that before the objections were prepared the court informed counsel not only what would be done with reference to appellant’s objections to the main charge and ap-pellees’ requested charges, but what would also be done with appellant’s requested charge, whereupon what was intended to be combined objections and exceptions were prepared. The record in a measure inferentially sustains such view, since all the charges complained of were refused at the same time the objections were filed. There is a serious question in our minds, however, whether these facts show a substantial compliance with the law, since the verification of the court that appellant did except is, as stated, wholly inferential and is deducible from no indorsement of the judge, but rests upon what is contained in the objections. We have, however, considered the several assignments of error and have reached the conclusion that nothing is shown thereby which can change our original disposition of the case, based, as it was, largely upon the fact that the jury found adversely to appellant upon both the award of the arbitrators and the cause of action independently thereof, upon charges fairly, fully, and favorably presenting appellant’s defenses. Having reached that conclusion we feel that a discussion of the several assignments seriatim is unnecessary.
The motion for rehearing is overruled.