Public-domain · open source
OpenJurist

44 Wis. 601

Hiles v. Mosher

Wisconsin Supreme Court

Decided August 15, 1878

Wisconsin Supreme Court · decided 1878-08-15

In November, 1874, one Baker was declared by the board of county canvassers of Wood county to have been elected clerk of that county at the preceding general election; and in December following, the plaintiff and others as sureties, with said Baker as principal, executed the official bond given by the latter as such clerk.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1878-08-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 8 later decisions — most recently July 1913

8 state decisions

3018781880189019001910decided

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 →

OetoN, J.

¶1The demurrer to the complaint in this case was properly sustained, on the ground that it does not state a good cause of action.

¶2The complaint shows the grossest negligence and laches of the plaintiff himself, and mere negligence on the part of his counsel in defense of the action in which the judgment was rendered. It does not appear from the complaint that he paid the slightest attention to the case after the service of the summons, although he resided in the county of Wood, and was frequently there attending to other business; and he does not charge in his complaint that his attorneys were guilty of any corrupt conduct, fraud or collusion in neglecting or abandoning the defense. The grounds for relief in this case are not as strong or meritorious as in Barber v. Rukeyser, 39 Wis., 590, in which Mr. Justice Cole applies and reasserts the rule laid down in Stowell v. Eldred, 26 Wis., 504, “ that a court of chancery would relieve against a "judgment at law, on the ground of its being contrary to equity, when the defendant in the judgment was ignorant of the fact in question pending the suit, or it could not have been received as a defense, or when he was prevented from availing himself of the defense by fra%id or accident, or the acts of the opposite party, unmixed with negligence or fault on his part.”

¶3By the Court.— The order of the circuit court is affirmed, with costs.

/44/wis/601 · .json · Public domain