Blake v. Atl. Nat. Bank

• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Rhode Island
• Writing for the Court: SWEETLAND, J.
• Citation: 80 A. 181,33 R.I. 109
• Decision Date: 07 July 1911
• Parties: BLAKE v. ATLANTIC NAT. BANK.

80 A. 181
33 R.I. 109

BLAKE
v.
ATLANTIC NAT. BANK.

Supreme Court of Rhode Island.

July 7, 1911.

Blodgett, J., dissenting.

Action by Charles E. Blake, trustee in bankruptcy, against the Atlantic National Bank. To a decision for plaintiff, defendant

80 A. 182

excepts. Motion to dismiss bill of exceptions denied and dismissed.

Gardner, Pirce & Thornley (Charles R. Haslam, of counsel), for plaintiff.

John S. Murdock and Percy W. Gardner, for defendant.

SWEETLAND, J. The plaintiff is the trustee in bankruptcy of a bankrupt copartnership. The plaintiff alleges that said copartnership before its bankruptcy pledged with the defendant certain shares of stock and a bond as collateral security for a loan made by it to the copartnership; that the defendant sold said collateral security to satisfy the indebtedness; that, after deducting from the proceeds of the sale the amount of the loan, it now holds a balance in its hands, which it should pay over to the plaintiff. The proceeding is an action of the case brought to recover said balance.

Jury trial having been waived, the case was tried in the superior court before the Presiding Justice. At a day subsequent to the date of hearing the said justice filed a rescript in the nature of the decision provided for in the statute in cases tried before a justice sitting without a jury. In this rescript the justice, after briefly considering the facts of the case and the question of law which in his opinion were involved, gave "decision for the plaintiff for the amount of the balance shown to be remaining in the hands of said defendant." To this decision the defendant excepted. Within the time fixed by law after filing a transcript of the evidence, the defendant filed its bill of exceptions, in which it states no exception save the one taken to the decision. In this bill of exceptions the defendant recites the title of the case, the name of the justice before whom it was tried, and the date of the trial, and then states that "upon the 10th day of May, 1910, the court gave its decision in said cause for the plaintiff for the amount of the balance shown to be remaining in the hands of said defendant, to which decision the defendant duly excepted." The defendant then prays that its bill of exceptions may be allowed by the court according to the statute.

The case is now before us upon the plaintiff's motion to dismiss the bill of exceptions, on the grounds that the said defendant failed to comply with section 17 of chapter 298, General Laws 1909, in that the said bill of exceptions does not state separately and clearly the exceptions taken by the said defendant to said decision of the superior court and now relied upon by said defendant, and that the statement of the exception in said bill of exceptions is too general and indefinite.

Section 8, c. 298, Gen. Laws 1909, provides, among other things, that any party to a civil action heard on its merits by the superior court without a jury, aggrieved by the decision of the court, may except thereto. The statute does not prescribe any particular form for this exception, nor does it require that the party excepting shall embody in his exception the grounds of his objection to the decision. He has sufficiently complied with the statute if he brings upon the record in some formal way the fact that he objects to the...