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12 Ind. 477

Spaulding v. Thompson

Indiana Supreme Court

Decided June 15, 1859

Indiana Supreme Court · decided 1859-06-15

<p>The neglect of an attorney employed to defend a suit, is the neglect of the party employing him; and a party will not be entitled to relief from a judgment by default, on account of such neglect, unless it be shown to have been excusable.</p> <p>An appeal will not lie from an order setting aside a default and judgment.</p>

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1859-06-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 18 later decisions — most recently January 1948

1 federal appellate · 17 state decisions

601859186018701880189019001910192019301940decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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Worden, J.

¶1The appellants recovered judgment against the appellees, in the Court below, by default, at the Octotober term, 1854. Afterwards, at the April term, 1855, Thompson filed his affidavit setting out, amongst other things, that previously to the default, he had employed an attorney to attend to and make defense to the action; that he implicitly relied upon the attorney to attend to the suit, wffio, for some reason unknown to the affiant, wholly neglected to attend to the same, -whereby judgment was rendered by default against him; and he prayed to be relieved from the. judgment thus taken, as it was rendered against him -through surprise, inadvertence, and the neglect of his attorney.

J. W. Chapman and J. B. Merriwether, for the appellants.

¶2The Court granted the prayer, and set aside the default and judgment, and from this ruling the plaintiffs appeal to this Court.

¶3These proceedings in setting aside the judgment, we suppose, were had under § 90 of the code, which authorizes the Court, in its discretion, at any time within one year, to “relieve a party from a judgment taken against him through his mistake, inadvertence, surprise, or excusable neglect.” It is very questionable whether the mere neglect of an attorney employed to defend a cause, as in the case at bar, is an excusable neglect within the statute. It has generally been held that the neglect of an attorney employed by a party, is the neglect of the party himself; and without something being shown to render it excusable, we are not prepared to say that a party is. entitled to relief.

¶4But the appeal to this Court is premature. The order of the Court, setting aside the default and judgment, is not a “final judgment” from which an appeal lies to this Court. Code, § 550.—Branham v. The Fort Wayne and Southern Railroad Co., 7 Inch R. 524. The questions involved being saved by a proper exception, when the cause shall be finally disposed of, all the points thus saved come up together. Woolley v. The State, 8 Ind. R. 377.

Per Curiam.

¶5The appeal is dismissed with'costs.

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