Court Opinion

ID: 9864908
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-25 16:16:28.250168+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:32:34.004561
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Bakke
specially concurring.
I agree with the opinion of the court on the ground indicated in the opinion, but feel that the judgment should also be reversed on the question of residence.
Counsel for plaintiffs in error poses the question as follows: .“What sort of a.residence of a defendant within the precinct, meets the requirements of the statute?” The'.trial court, found on conflicting: evidence that the Harveys were residents of Precinct No. 3, while I think it should have found, as a matter of law, that they were residents of Precinct No. 1,’ in which they were served. We have repeatedly held that the purpose of the statute was to give resident debtors a “forum at their own doors.” Wagner v. Hallack, 3 Colo. 176, 182; Denver, S.P. &Pac. R.R. Co. v. Roberts, 6 Colo. 333, 336; Walker v. People ex rel., 87 Colo. 178, 181, 285 Pac. 1104.
*293When we adopt the. commonly- accepted.- and ordinary meaning of the, word “resides” as “the place where, an individual eats, drinks and sleeps, or where his family or his servants, eat, drink and sleep” (54.C.J. 704, §5), I: think the agreed statement of the record shows as a matter of law that the Harveys resided. in Precinct No. 1.
The agreed statement discloses that James Harvey had rented the house at 706 Rudd Avenue for seven or eight years; that members of his family lived there during the school year in order that the children might have the advantage of the city schools; that they were listed in the city directory at that address; that James Harvey made visits there to see his family; that he kept his clothes and other personal belongings there; that his wife stayed there the greater part of the time; that during the year preceding this litigation he had spent a great deal of his time and had taken his meals at the house with his family. Exhibit “A” is a certified copy of a tax schedule wherein the address of Leonard and James Harvey is given as 706 Rudd Avenue, which schedule was sworn to by J. G. Harvey as agent for Harvey Brothers. A driver’s license issued to James G. Harvey gave the same address.
That evidence as to residence, which was not in dispute, is in my opinion sufficient to make the service legal.
Mr. Justice Bock concurs in this opinion.