Public-domain · open source
OpenJurist

23 Minn. 268

Curtis v. Jackson

Supreme Court of Minnesota

Decided January 9, 1877

Supreme Court of Minnesota · decided 1877-01-09

Appeal by plaintiff from an order of the district court for Washington county, Grosby, J., presiding, vacating a judgment. The judgment was entered on default, on July 8, 1867, and the application to vacate it was made on December 15, 1874. At the hearing in the court below it was stipulated that the defendant had notice of the judgment in May, 1868.

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

““The appearance of a defendant in court for the sole purpose of objecting, by motion, to the mode or manner in which it is claimed that jurisdiction over his person has been acquired, is not an appearance in the cause, or a waiver of any defect in tbe manner of acquiring such jurisdiction; while, on the other hand, the appearance for the purpose of contesting the merits of the cause, whether by motion or formal pleading, is a waiver of all objections to the jurisdiction of the court over the person of defendant, whether the defendant intended such waiver or not. In respect to this question, an important distinction is made between an objection to the jurisdiction of the subject-matter of the suit and of the person of defendant, although complete jurisdiction in the court to hear and determine the action is not acquired unless the court has jurisdiction over both the subject-matter and the person. An objection to jurisdiction over the subject-matter is a waiver of objection to the jurisdiction of the person, while an objection to the jurisdiction of the person is a waiver of nothing.””

quoted by 1 later decision, including Wabash Western Ry. v. Brow

Relies on Anderson v. Coburn · Grantier v. Rosecrance

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1877-01-09

How this case has been cited

Cited by 14 later decisions — most recently July 1959

1 federal appellate · 13 state decisions

40187718801890190019101920193019401950decided

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.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

Gilfillan, C. J.

¶1This was an appeal from an order vacating a judgment entered in favor of plaintiff. The judgment was entered July 8, 1867, upon a service of summons by publication, and default of defendant to answer, and, an attachment having been issued at the time of issuing' the summons, and levied upon real estate, an execution was issued on the judgment, and the real estate sold under it. In December, 1874, the defendant procured an order to show cause why the judgment should not be vacated and set aside, and such relief granted as in the premises might be just; and, pursuant to this order, the order appealed from was made. Neither the order to show cause, nor the affidavit of defendant’s attorney upon which, and on the files and records in the cause, the application was made, specifies distinctly the grounds on which the application was made; but the affidavit states, as irregularities, that there was no sufficient affidavit to authorize the order directing service of the summons by publication ; that no sufficient bond or recognizance was ever made in the proceeding by attachment, nor sufficient affidavit of failure to answer; that the facts found by the referee did not warrant a judg*270ment, nor does it appear that said referee ever qualified as such, or was qualified to act; that it does not appear that satisfactory security was given to authorize the entry of judgment in cases where the summons is served by publication. The defects or irregularities alleged may be taken as the grounds of the application.

¶2All of these defects, except the insufficiency of the affidavit upon which the order of publication of the summons was made, are mere irregularities, and the right to have the judgment set aside on account of such irregularities was lost by the neglect of defendant to make application in proper time.

¶3The objection to the affidavit upon which the order of publication was made goes to the jurisdiction of the court over the person of the defendant, and it might be available to her if she had not cured the defect bjr a general appearance in the action. In Grantier v. Rosecrance, 27 Wis. 488, a motion had been made and granted in the lower court to set asido a judgment, on the ground that the record did not show a valid service of the summons, and also because the complaint did not state a cause of action. The supreme court reversed the order setting aside the judgment, and said: “Had he (the defendant) limited the motion solely to defects in the service of the summons, the appearance would have been a qualified one. But ho did not ask to have the judgment vacated for that reason alone, but because the complaint did not state a cause of action against him. This was a full submission to the jurisdiction of the court, and general appearance.”

¶4Anderson v. Coburn, 27 Wis. 558, was a similar case, and the rule in Grantier v. Rosecrancewas reaffirmed. In Clark v. Blackwell, 4 G. Greene, (Iowa,) 441, the rule was stated : “No special appearance can be made except to jurisdictional questions. If a party so far appears as to call into action the powers of the court for any purpose, except to decide upon its own jurisdiction, it is a full appearance.”

¶5*271In this case the affidavit on which the application was made set forth several alleged defects, besides the jurisdictional one, without confining the ground of application to any one ; and it must be assumed that it was made upon all of them. Upon the rule laid down in the cases we have cited— in which we fully concur — this cured all objections to jurisdiction over the person; and, as the application was too late to take advantage of the other objections, it ought not to have been granted.

¶6Order reversed.

/23/minn/268 · .json · Public domain