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82 Ind. 87

Stephenson v. Ballard

Indiana Supreme Court

Decided May 15, 1882

Indiana Supreme Court · decided 1882-05-15

<p>Mechanic’s Lien. — Married Woman. — Statutes Construed. — Section 5116, R. S. 1881, forbids a wife to encumber her lands save by deed in which the husband joins; but the later statutes (section 5293, et seq.) provide for a mechanic’s lien generally, and construing them together, giving the later effect when in conflict with the former, a married woman may create such lien, like a feme sole.</p> <p>Same. — Notice.—Time of Filing. — Contract.—A lien for labor and materials in repairing a building, upon an entire contract, may be acquired by filing the notice within sixty days after the last work is done.</p> <p>Same. — Husband and Wife. — Pleading.—Practice.—In a suit against husband and wife to enforce a mechanic’s lien upon lands of the wife, where the husband answers separately that he made the contract without the wife’s knowledge or consent, and paid for the same a sum named which was accepted as payment, it is error to strike the answer out, so much of it as alleges payment being pertinent.</p> <p>Same. — Payment.—Pleading and Proof. — Proof of payment is not admissible under the general denial, in a suit to enforce a mechanic’s lien, nor need the plaintiff prove non-payment though he must aver it. Pbactice. — Judgment.—Supreme Court. — Objection to the form of a judgment can not be made, for the first time, in the Supreme Court.</p> <p>Same. — Evidence.—After a pleading has been stricken out, there is no error in rejecting evidence which would only have been admissible under it. Bin op Exceptions. — Practice.—Record.—A bill of exceptions, otherwise regular on its face, which concludes with the words “to be agreed to by counsel,” the signature of the judge then following, with no explanatory proof, will be regarded as properly in the record.</p>

Relies on Cluck v. State · Stewart v. Rankin

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1882-05-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 9 later decisions — most recently March 1917

9 state decisions

401882189019001910decided

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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¶1On Petition fob a Rehearing.

Bicknell, C. C.

¶2This cause was reversed for error in striking out the answer of the defendant Stephenson.

¶3The answer was set out in a bill of exceptions.

¶4The appellee insists that the bill ought not to have been regarded as part of the record. He says it was signed upon condition, and he refers to Stewart v. Rankin, 39 Ind. 161, and Cluck v. State, 40 Ind. 263.

¶5In the first of these cases the bill of exceptions was signed by the judge in blank, and did not contain the evidence, and it appeared that the judge had never seen the evidence.

¶6It was therefore held that the evidence which had been copied by the clerk into another part of the record, and which was referred to in the bill of exceptions by the words “ see pages 18 to 28,” etc., was not part of the bill of exceptions, and was not properly in the record.

¶7In the second of the cases referred to, the bill of exceptions contained the statement, “this was all the evidence given in the cause,” followed by the direction “ insert reporter’s notes,” and ending thus, “ signed and sealed within the time allotted.” Signed by the Judge.

¶8“ It is agreed that the evidence, before this bill shall be of any effect, shall be revised and corrected by the attorney for the prosecution.” Signed by the Judge.

¶9The bill in this case was strongly criticised by this court, but it was not rejected, although a motion had been made to strike it from the record. The case was decided upon the evidence in said bill presented.

¶10There is no analogy between the case at bar and either of the foregoing cases.

¶11Here, the bill of exceptions was not signed in blank; it had no expressed condition that it should be “ revised and corrected;” it was signed by the judge; it contained all the ev*92idence; it was in the common form, and was shown to have been filed within the time allowed by the court.

¶12Under the date of it, are the words “to be agi’eed to by counsel',” then follows the signature of «the judge in its ordinary jilacc. In the absence of any evidence, the legal presumption is that the judge did his duty. There was no motion to reject this bill of exceptions.; if it was proper to consider the evidence in the case of Cluck v. State, supra, a fortiori it was proper to consider the evidence here; the mere existence upon the bill of the words above stated, without any proof as to the manner in which they were placed there, or as to their purpose, and without any showing that the bill was not agreed to by counsel, does not overcome the legal presumption that the judge did his duty and signed the bill, “ having convinced himself, either by the^ consent of opposing counsel, or by a personal examination, that it contained the truth.”

¶13The petition for a rehearing ought to be overruled.

¶14Per Curiam. — The petition for a rehearing is overruled.

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