Public-domain · open source
OpenJurist

68 Ind. 583

Friddle v. Crane

Indiana Supreme Court

Decided November 15, 1879

Indiana Supreme Court · decided 1879-11-15

<p>Promissory Note. — Reference to in Complaint. — Identification.—"Whore a complaint on a promissory note refers to such note as “herewith filed,” and such a note as the one described is actually filed with and accompanies the complaint, it is sufficiently identified.</p> <p>Same. — Averment that Note is Unpaid. — Demurrer.—Pleading.—A complaint on a promissory note must contain an averment, either in terms or equivalent words, that the note remains unpaid, or it will be insufficient uport demurrer for want of facts.</p> <p>Same. — Amendment.—Supreme Court. — Practice.—A complaint, bad upon demurrer for want of facts, can not be deemed amended in the Supreme Court.</p> <p>Same. — Judgment founded on bad Complaint. — A judgment founded upon a bad complaint, not cured by the verdict, can not be maintained</p>

Relies on Sinker, Davis & Co. v. Fletcher

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1879-11-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 16 later decisions — most recently October 1913

16 state decisions

9018791880189019001910decided

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 →

¶1On petition for a rehearing.

Niblack, J.

¶2The appellee has filed a petition for a rehearing in this case upon the grounds :

¶3First. That the defect in the complaint was one which might have been supplied by amendment upon the trial, and hence it was a defect which this court ought to have considered as having been supplied by amendment.

¶4Second. That the defect in the complaint was supplied by the evidence, thus curing the defect and making the finding and judgment right upon the evidence.

¶5Third. That as the defect in the complaint was only of a formal and technical character, and as the judgment was right on the merits, there was no sufficient reason for reversing the j udgment.

¶6Sections 99, 101 and 580 of the Code are cited to sustain these positions. Other authorities are also cited for the same purpose. But it must be borne in mind that the question first presented in this case was not one of variance between the complaint and the evidence and the supposed consequent right of amendment upon the trial. Nor *586was it whether the defect in the complaint was one which would have been cured by the finding, if there had been no demurrer raising the question of the defect. Neither was it whether the judgment was right on the merits. It was simply, Was the complaint sufficient upon demurrer?

¶7For reasons given in the opinion, we had to decide, reluctantly we admit, that the complaint was, in legal contemplation, materially defective. A complaint, bad upon demurrer for want of sufficient facts, can not be deemed amended in this court. Sinker, Davis & Co. v. Fletcher, 61 Ind. 276.

¶8There is no rule of practice better settled than that a judgment founded upon a bad complaint, not cured by the verdict, can not be maintained. The demurrer to the complaint having been erroneously overruled, it necessarily followed that the judgment had to be reversed.

¶9The authorities cited do not bear upon the sufficiency of the complaint, but have reference to matters occurring at the trial.

¶10The petition for a rehearing is overruled.

/68/ind/583 · .json · Public domain