Court Opinion

ID: 9773531
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 17:48:41.665248+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:31:54.766572
License: Public Domain

BARRETT, C.
(Adopted as Dissenting Opinion of Leedy and Tipton, JJ.) — This is an action by Adair County against William Urban, Junior, a contractor, and The Travelers Indemnity Company, his surety, for damages for breach of a contract to erect a bridge across the Chariton River. The county claims damages in the sum of $20,000. Upon the first trial the jury returned a verdict for $5000 which the trial court, upon the county’s motion for a new trial, set aside as inadequate. The defendants appealed and the trial court’s judgment was affirmed and the cause remanded. Adair County v. Urban, (Mo.) 250 S. W. (2) 493. After the cause was remanded the defendant, Urban, petitioned for a change of venue for the asserted reason that the plaintiff had an undue influence over the mind of the judge who was prejudiced. When the application for a change of venue was heard the judge disqualified himself and requested Honorable Walter A. Higbee, Judge of the 37th Judicial Circuit, to hear the cause. The case came on for trial before Judge Higbee and the defendants objected to the jurisdiction of Adair County upon the ground that the cause should have been sent to another county in an adjoining or next adjoininng circuit. Judge Higbee overruled the defendants’ objections *755and upon the second trial there was a judgment in favor of the county in the sum of $4000.
The defendants did not file a motion for a new trial, or any other after trial motions. The plaintiff, however, filed a motion for a new trial as to the amount of the damages only, or in the alternative a motion for a new trial as to the whole cause. The grounds of the alternative motions were inadequacy of the verdict, error in the giving of instructions and error in the acceptance of the jury’s verdict which, according to the plaintiff and the jurors, resulted from the jury’s misunderstanding and confusion and was not in the total sum intended by the jury, to wit, $12,166.66, or the total amount of the surety bond, $8,166.66, plus the sum of $4000 found against the contractor. The motions were set for hearing on the 10th day of October, 1952, and the defendants had notice of the fact but did not appear. On the date set, which was within thirty days of the entry of the judgment, the trial court considered and overruled the alternative motions but, on the court’s own motion, entered the following order:
“Order Setting Aside Verdict. Acting by authority and in accordance with the provisions of Section 510.370, the court, on its own motion, doth hereby set aside the verdict of the jury returned in the above numbered case and the judgment entered thereon for the reason that, in the opinion of the court, the motion for change of venue filed by the defendant, William Urban, Jr., on August 23, 1952, divested the Circuit Court of Adair County, Missouri, of jurisdiction to further consider and try said cause.”
The defendants have appealed from the order granting the new trial. The appeal is not upon a full transcript of the record, or upon the merits of the entire cause, but upon an agreed ‘ ‘ Statement Of The Case As Transcript On Appeal,” (V.A.M.S., Sec. 512.120) and consists of the facts and statements heretofore set forth. In the agreed statement the appellants stipulated that the points relied upon are: (1) that Urban’s motion for change of venue did not divest Adair County of jurisdiction, (2) that the order of the court setting aside the judgment, on the court’s own motion, was without notice to the defendants and, therefore, void, and (3) that if the motion for change of venue divested the Circuit Court of Adair County of jurisdiction that the court’s failure to send the cause to another circuit was an error of which the plaintiff: could not complain. And those are the points briefed and argued here as. grounds for reversing the judgment and remanding the cause with directions to reinstate the judgment for $4000.
In so far as it concerns this appeal the statute (V.A.M.S., See. 512.-020) provides that “Any party to a suit aggrieved- by any judgment of any trial court in any civil cause * * * may.take his appeal to a court having appellate jurisdiction from any order granting a
*756new trial * * * or from any final judgment in the case * * The statute says ‘ ‘ from any order granting a new trial, ’ ’ consequently it is assumed that the appellants may maintain the appeal provided they are “aggrieved” by the order within the meaning of the statute. In general “aggrieved” means “adversely affected in respect of legal rights; suffering from an infringement or denial of legal rights.” Webster’s New International Dictionary. The infringement or denial must be direct, the rights adversely affected must not be collaterally or incidentally involved, and, more specifically, the judgment must affect some pecuniary or property right or interest. American Petroleum Exchange v. Public Service Commission, 238 Mo. App. 92, 176 S. W. (2) 533, 534. Furthermore, the statute means that the appealing litigant “must be aggrieved or injured by that particular judgment.” McClain v. Kansas City Bridge Co., 338 Mo. 7, 11, 88 S. W. (2) 1019, 1021. As a general rule a litigant, either plaintiff or defendant, is not aggrieved and may not appeal from an order or judgment in his own favor (4 C.J.S., Sec. 183(3), p. 359), his legal rights are not infringed or adversely affected by a favorable order or judgment. To illustrate, a judgment of dismissal, entered at the proper time, does not so adversely affect the defendant’s rights that he is aggrieved, within the meaning of the statute. McCormack v. Dunn, 232 Mo. App. 371, 106 S. W. (2) 933. And neither the plaintiff nor the defendant is adversely affected when the trial court sustains either of their motions for a new trial. Luethans v. Lahey, 237 S. W. (2) 209; Long Mercantile Co. v. Saffron, (Mo. App.) 104 S. W. (2) 770; Vendt v. Duenke, (Mo. App.) 210 S. W. (2) 692. So when both the plaintiff and defendant file motions for a new trial and the trial court overrules the defendant’s motion but sustains the plaintiff’s motion the defendant is not aggrieved. Deiermann v. Bemis Bros. Bag Co., 144 Mo. App. 474, 129 S. W. 229. Likewise, a party is not aggrieved when his complaint in the appellate court is that the verdict rendered against him is not as large as it should have been. Western States Portland Cement Co. v. Bruce, 160 Mo. App. 246, 142 S. W. 783. In Humphries v. Shipp, 238 Mo. App. 985, 194 S. W. (2) 693, the plaintiff brought an action in conversion, the defendant filed a counterclaim. There was a verdict against the plaintiff on his cause of action and a verdict and judgment in favor of the defendant on his counterclaim in the sum of $118.50. Upon the plaintiff’s appeal it was held that the plaintiff was not aggrieved when his complaint was that the judgment on the counterclaim was not as large as it should, have been.
A litigant is aggrieved, however, and may appeal, even though he has filed no after trial motions, when his complaint is that his adversary, as a matter of law, is not entitled to a judgment in any event and that the trial court should have so declared. In Nelson v. Kansas City, 360 Mo. 143, 227 S. W. (2) 672, the plaintiff had a verdict for his personal injuries for $1000. The trial court sustained the plaintiff’s *757motion for a new trial on the ground, of inadequacy of the verdict. Even though the defendant had filed no after trial motions it was held that the defendant could raise and the court would consider the question of whether the plaintiff had a submissible case. The rule is stated in Lilly v. Boswell, (Mo.) 242 S. W. (2) 73, 77, in this language, “Defendant filed no after trial motions, and, therefore, we are precluded from reviewing any error occurring in the trial of the case other than that inherent in every case that comes to an appellate court on appeal, to wit: whether a submissible case was made.” Fenton v. Thompson, 352 Mo. 199, 176 S. W. (2) 456, is illustrative of the rule. There the plaintiff instituted an action for $50,000 damages for personal injuries. After the case was submitted, but before the jury returned a verdict, the court permitted the plaintiff to enter a voluntary dismissal. Upon the defendant’s appeal it was contended, among other things, that he was not aggrieved. But the statute as to voluntary dismissals then provided, M.R.S.A., [808] Sec. 1111, that ‘ ‘ The plaintiff shall be allowed to dismiss his suit or take a nonsuit at any time before the same is finally submitted to the jury, or to the court sitting as a jury, or to the court, and not afterward.” (See V.A.M.S., Sec. 510.130.) Under this provision the appellant contended that after submission to the jury the court had no power to enter a voluntary dismissal and upon the plaintiff’s entering a dismissal the defendant was entitled, as a matter of law, to a judgment of dismissal with prejudice — a judgment that would completely adjudicate the plaintiff’s claim for $50,000. In holding that the appellant was aggrieved and could appeal this court said, “While the judgment on its face appears to be in appellant’s favor, yet if, under the circumstances shown by the record, the appellant was entitled, as a matter of law, to a judgment of dismissal ‘with prejudice,’ or on the merits, barring a further prosecution of the cause, and, if the judgment entered does not so provide, then error, in prejudice of appellant’s substantial rights, has been committed against him, in that he did not receive all to which he was legally entitled.”
But it will be observed that the appellants here do not contend that the plaintiff does not have or did not make a submissible case. On the contrary, it is tacitly conceded that the plaintiff has and made a submissible case and is entitled to recover in some sum. The appellants have not appealed upon a full transcript of the record or upon the merits of the case, and they do not contend that they are entitled to an order or judgment absolutely discharging them, as a matter of law, of all liability upon the contract and suretyship, or, conversely, they do not claim and contend that the plaintiff’s claim is or should be completely extinguished for any reason. They are in the exceptional and anomalous position of asking that an order granting a new trial, in ordinary circumstances a favorable order, be set aside and that a judgment imposing liability be entered in the sum of $4000. It may
*758have been due to confusion on the part of the jury but the second trial resulted in a smaller verdict than the first trial and, while it is extremely unlikely, it is possible that a third trial may result in a still smaller verdict, or, from all that appears from this record, no verdict at all. In any event, it is difficult to'demonstrate upon this record that the appellants are aggrieved or injured “by that particular judgment, ’ ’ they are not aggrieved in a legal sense within the meaning of the statute because of the possibility of being subjected to another trial and greater liability. In McClain v. Kansas City Bridge Company, supra, the deceased fell from a pile driver on a barge on the Missouri River. His parents, as dependents, filed a claim for compensation and the Workmen’s Compensation Commission took jurisdiction of the claim and made an award in favor of the dependents. Upon appeal to the circuit court the trial judge entered this judgment, “this cause is reversed for want of jurisdiction under state law.” Upon appeal the bridge company contended that it was aggrieved in two respects, (a) that it was deprived of the right to defend, before the Workmen’s Compensation Commission and (b) that as a result of the judgment it would be forced to defend against an action under the federal laws relating to maritime torts. In holding that the appellant bridge company was not aggrieved the court said, “As the case stood before the appeal was granted, this particular action was finally determined in appellant’s favor. We cannot see how appellant is aggrieved in any manner, as far as the action pending in the circuit court is concerned, by being deprived of the opportunity to further litigate it. Neither do we agree with the theory that appellant is aggrieved in the sense that term is used in the statute, by the possibility it will be required to defend another action before some other tribunal. The statute, properly construed means that a litigant must be aggrieved or injured by that particular judgment or, as Section 1023, supra, says,.that error was committed by the trial court ‘against the party,’ before he should have the right to appeal.” Prudence may dictate the discharge of the appellants’ obligations in this case by the payment of $4000 and, depending on future events and the outcome of another trial, the appellants may indeed become aggrieved, but they are not aggrieved by the particular judgment in the circumstances involved upon this appeal. From the appellants’ point of view a retrial of this cause may eventually bring about an apparent unjust result, but upon the record involved in this appeal the present order relieves them 'of any immediate liability and they are not presently aggrieved adversely in their legal rights by the particular judgment in their pecuniary or property rights or interests. McClain v. Kansas City Bridge Co., supra; American Petroleum Exchange v. Public Service Commission, supra; Deiermann v. Bemis Bros. Bag Co., supra; McCormack v. Dunn, supra; Vendt v. Duenke, supra. Since the appel*759lants are not “aggrieved” within the meaning of the statute they are hot entitled to maintain this appeal and, accordingly, the appeal is dismissed.