Court Opinion

ID: 9547005
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 17:39:50.548789+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:17:11.328398
License: Public Domain

MR. CHIEF JUSTICE ADAIR
(dissenting).
This appeal is from a decree entered in an ordinary suit to quiet title to real property. Such suits are in equity being a development of hills quia timet or bills of peace remedies which originated in and appertained to the jurisdiction of the court of chancery. 44 Am. Jur., Quieting Title, secs. 1-3, pp. 3-5; 51 C. J., Quieting Title, sec. 1, p. 132 et seq.
The appeal was heard by four members of this court, the remaining justice deeming himself disqualified to sit in the cause. The four justices who heard the case are agreed that the decree of the district court should be affirmed but stand evenly divided as to the powers and duties of this court, under the law, R. C. M. 1947, sec. 93-216, on the appeal of an equity case.
We do not agree that, on appeal in equity cases, the province of this court is merely to determine whether or not the findings and conclusions of the district court are supported by substantial evidence or that whenever substantial evidence appears which may support the district court’s findings this court may not interfere with such findings nor do we agree that where the evidence is conflicting this court must adopt the conclusion of the trial judge except only in cases where the evidence of the defendant is contradictory in itself or so inherently improbable or contrary to physical facts as to be unworthy of belief.
We do not concede that such are the rules of law that now govern appeals to this court in equity cases or in matters and *602proceedings of an equitable nature nor have they been the law in this jurisdiction at any time since December 10, 1903, the effective date of the “Fair Trial Law” enacted, at the Second Extraordinary Session of the Eighth Legislative Assembly, as Chapter 1 of the Second Extra Session'of 1903, page 7, now R. C. M. 1947, section 93-216.
(The powers and duties of the supreme court on appeals are prescribed by the Constitution and the statutes of this state.
The Constitution provides: “The supreme court, except as otherwise provided in this constitution, shall have appellate jurisdiction only, which shall be co-extensive with the state, and shall have a general supervisory control over all inferior courts, under such regulations and limitations as may be prescribed by law.” Montana Constitution, Art. VIII, sec. 2.
“The appellate jurisdiction of the supreme court shall extend to all cases at law and in equity, subject, however, to such limitations and regulations as may be prescribed by law.” Art. VIII, sec. 3. (Emphasis supplied.)
In adopting the Montana Codes of 1895 the legislature, by the enactment of sections 20 and 21 of the Code of Civil Procedure, provided:
“Section 20. The appellate jurisdiction of the Supreme Court extends to all cases at' law and in equity.
“Section 21. The Supreme Court may affirm, reverse or modify any judgment or order appealed from, and may direct the proper judgment or order to be entered, or direct a new trial or further proceedings to be had. The decision of the court must be given in writing and a syllabus thereof must be prepared by the court and filed with the opinion; and in giving its decision, if a new trial be granted, the court must pass upon and determine all the questions of law involved in the case, presented upon such appeal, and necessary to the final determination of the case. Its judgment in appealed cases must be remitted to the court from which the appeal was taken.”
Section 21 of the Code of Civil Procedure of 1895 applied alike to all appeals to this court whether in cases at law or cases *603in equity. On the appeal of either class of cases the 1895 statute said that this "court must pass upon and determine all the questions of law involved in the case, presented upon such appeal, and necessary to the final determination of the case” making no mention of the questions of fact involved.
Under the foregoing statute, sec. 21, this court, in a long series of decisions covering more than a quarter of a century, ruled that in both equity cases as well as in law cases, wherein the record disclosed the evidence to be conflicting, the appellate court was without power to disregard the findings of the district court, express or implied, or to make other and different findings and conclusions of its own. Thus did the court construe section 21 of the Code of Civil Procedure of 1895.
In the year 1903 all this was changed as to appeals in equity cases and in matters and proceedings of an equitable nature.
The Eighth Legislative Assembly by the enactment of Chapter 1 of the Laws of the Second Extra Session of 1903, page 7, commonly known as the "Fair Trial Law” amended section 21 of the Code of Civil Procedure of 1895 to read: "Section 21. The Supreme Court may affirm, reverse, or modify any judgment or order appealed from, and may direct the proper judgment or order to be entered, or direct a new trial or further proceedings to be had. The decision of the court must be given in writing and a syllabus thereof must be prepared by the court and filed with the opinion; and in giving its decision, if a new trial be granted, the court must pass upon and determine all the questions of law involved in the case, presented upon such appeal, and necessary to the final determination of the case. Its judgment in appealed cases must be remitted to the court from which the appeal was taken. In equity cases, and in matters and proceedings of an equitable nature, the Supreme Court shall review all questions of fact arising upon the evidence presented in the record, whether the same be presented by specifications of particulars in which the evidence is alleged to be insufficient or not, and determine the same, as well as questions of law, unless for good cause, a new trial or the taking of further *604evidence in the court below be ordered: Provided, that nothing herein shall be construed to abridge, in any manner, the powers of the Supreme Court in other cases.” (Emphasis supplied.)
The new matter which the Eighth Legislative Assembly added to section 21, supra, is set forth above in italics.
Thus did the statute, sec. 21, as amended in 1903, make it mandatory for the supreme court on the appeal of an equity case to “review all questions of fact arising upon the evidence presented in the record, whether the same be presented by specifications of particulars in which the evidence is alleged to be insufficient or not, and determine the same, as well as questions of law, unless, for good cause, a new trial or the taking of further evidence in the court below be ordered.”
In Bordeaux v. Bordeaux, 32 Mont. 159, 165, 80 Pac. 6, 8, being an appeal in an action for divorce, decided in 1905, this court, speaking through Chief Justice Brantly, said: “It is said, however, that the evidence on the subject of condemnation is conflicting, and that for this reason the court, under an unbroken line of its own decisions rendered during the past 26 years, is not at liberty to disregard the findings of the district court, express or implied, and make up its own conclusion upon the evidence. This rule has always heretofore been observed by this court, as is evidenced .by the decisions referred to, both in equity eases and cases at law. In equity cases, however, the rule has been changed by act of the Legislature, whereby it is made the duty of this court to determine all questions of law and of fact involved, unless for a good reason a new trial or the taking of other evidence in the district court be ordered. Act of 1903, 2d Ex. Sess. p. 7. This statute seems to have been overlooked by counsel. Whether the power conferred by it was already vested in the court without legislative enactment or not we shall not now pause to inquire. It is sufficient to say that, in so far as the decisions referred to are concerned, they do not now apply' in the strict sense to equity eases, and this court has power, and it is its duty, so far as it may, exercising a due regard for the findings of the district court, based, as they are, *605upon the testimony of witnesses delivered ore tenus in the presence of the court, to reach its own conclusions, and to declare upon the rights involved accordingly.” (Emphasis supplied.)
The rule of law set forth in R. C. M. 1947, section 93-216, was written and enacted by the law-making department of this state. It expressly prescribes the powers and duties of this court on appeals in equity cases. In construing this statute it is our office simply to ascertain and declare what is in terms or in substance contained therein, — not to insert what has been omitted or to omit what has been inserted, R. C. M. 1947, sec. 93-401-15, and most certainly not to rewrite the statute so as to reinstate the rule prescribed by section 21 of the Code of Civil Procedure of 1895, so long ago discarded by the law-makers of this state as unfair and unworkable in equity cases such as the quiet title suit now before us.
The bench and bar, as well as the people of this state, are entitled to know whether the 1895 statute or the 1903 amendment thereto now governs appeals in equity cases such as quiet title suits and in matters and proceedings of an equitable nature or wherein the procedure is that of the equity practice such as in suits for divorce.
Clearly it is the duty of this court to follow the mandate of the present statute, R. C. M. 1947, sec. 93-216, rather than that of section 21 of the Code of Civil Procedure of 1895 as it read prior to the 1903 amendment. In the language of Chief Justice Brantly, 132 Mont, at page 165, 80 Pac. at page 8 of the Bordeaux Case, supra, “This statute seems to have been overlooked”. See also: State ex rel. Nagle v. Naughton, 103 Mont. 306, 310, 311, 63 Pac. (2d) 123, and the cases therein cited; Sullivan v. Marsh, Mont., 225 Pac. (2d) 868; Higby v. Hooper, Mont. 221 Pac. (2d) 1043; Hart v. Barron, Mont., 204 Pac. (2d) 797, 802, and Miller v. Miller, 121 Mont. 55, 190 Pac. (2d) 72.
Since a quorum does not agree on the law which prescribes the powers and duties of this court on appeals in equity eases *606no law is here settled although the decree of the district court stands affirmed.