Court Opinion

ID: 9527461
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 03:30:47.89144+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:25:48.444888
License: Public Domain

ON REHEARING.
COLEMAN, Justice.
This cause was placed on rehearing on motion of the writer for the purpose of considering a misapprehension that might arise from reading the original opinion.
The opinion may give the impression that the demurrer, to the bill as a whole, contains a ground which takes the point that a necessary party is absent. Such is not the case, although the amended demurrer addressed to one alleged aspect of the bill does contain the ground that: “(23) Jimmy D. Morris is not a party respondent to this bill of complaint.”
We do not regard the absence of a ground of demurrer, taking th'e point of non-joinder of a necessary party, as preventing the court from taking notice of such non-joinder and sustaining the demurrer on that ground.
While this court has said that:
“Again: no bill should be dismissed for want of proper parties complainant, unless the objection is taken in the court below; and on suggestion of the names of the parties that are improperly omitted, if, after this, the complainant refuses to join them by an amendment of his bill, the court may dismiss it without prejudice, but not absolutely.” Andrews v. Hobson’s Adm’r, 23 Ala. 219, 232, 233; see also: Drath v. Armstrong, 224 Ala. 661, 141 So. 634;
the court has also said:
“It is not indispensable to the action of the court that the want of parties should be presented by a demurrer; it is allowable for the chancellor to notice it mere motu, even at the hearing, and order the bill to stand over on leave to amend or to dismiss it without prejudice.” Goodman, Ex’r v. Benham, adm’r, 16 Ala. 625, 631; see also : Poyner v. Whiddon, 234 Ala. 168, 174 So. 507.
Whatever of apparent conflict there is in the foregoing quotations was explained as follows:
“The general rule is, that if a bill is defective for the want of proper parties, advantage should be taken of the defect, by plea, demurrer, or answer, and if not so taken, the objection is waived. The rule is subject to the exception, that if the cause can not be properly disposed of, on the merits, without the presence of the absent parties, the objection may be made at the hearing, or on error, it may be taken by the court ex mero motu. * * * ” Prout v. Hoge, 57 Ala. 28, 32.
In the instant case, as is noted in the opinion on original deliverance, the trial court, in its decree of December 22, 1960, expressly stated that the respondent had “ * * * called to the attention of the Court the absence of the necessary party respondent.” In that situation, we are of opinion that the court was not in error in sustaining the demurrer for lack of a necessary party, although no ground of demurrer to the bill as a whole expressly took that point.
Opinion extended.
Rehearing overruled.
LIVINGSTON, C. J., and LAWSON and MERRILL, JJ., concur.