Court Opinion

ID: 9824787
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-01 11:25:03.094721+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:40:06.015657
License: Public Domain

On Rehearing.
In reviewing the record in this case and entertaining the view that the motion was without merit, we did not enter into a discussion of the motion as filed. It is now insisted on application for rehearing that this court should have granted the motion to strike the bill of exceptions.
After judgment was rendered, and pending appeal, the defendant died. Before the cause had been revived in the name of executor, the bill of exceptions was prepared by the attorneys representing the de*382•fendant, and presented to the trial judge, who signed the same as being a true bill of exceptions. All of which was done within •the time allowed by law. Such bill of exceptions, so signed and filed, thereby became ■a part of the record to be used on appeal, if, and when, the cause was revived by order of the appellate court, which revivor was had on motion filed in this court on April 28th, 1938, after the appointment of the executrix on the 27th day of April, 1938.
We recognize the rule as laid down in McDonald v. Womack, 214 Ala. 309, 107 So. 812; that the death of the defendant in the court below revoked all agency of her attorneys to appear for her in seeking any order, either in the trial court or in this court, but the preparation of a hill of exceptions is not a judicial action in the sense of adjudging or enforcing the'rights of the parties. The bill of exceptions, so prepared and signed, could and was adopted by the executrix when she was substituted for the original appellant.
The office and purpose of a bill of exceptions is to afford the appellate court a history of the proceedings below, and when such bill of exceptions has been prepared and signed by the trial judge with his certificate, and within the time allowed by law, such bill becomes a part of the proceedings to be included in the record. Decatur Water Works Co. v. Foster, 161 Ala. 176, 49 So. 759; Sovereign Camp, W.O.W., v. Gay, 20 Ala.App. 650, 104 So. 895; Ex parte Gay, 213 Ala. 5, 104 So. 898.
The death of the defendant in the lower court discharging the agency of her attorneys on the trial would not prevent them from preparing and presenting to the Judge a bill of exceptions to be signed by him, that the true history of the case might be preserved.
The motion to strike the bill of exceptions is overruled.