Brownfield v. Social Security Com'n of Missouri

Decision Date19 November 1941
Citation155 S.W.2d 905,236 Mo.App. 333
PartiesJOHN T. BROWNFIELD, RESPONDENT, v. SOCIAL SECURITY COMMISSION OF MISSOURI, APPELLANT
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals

Appeal from the Circuit Court of Howell County.--Hon. Gordon Dorris Judge.

Motion to dismiss appeal overruled and case continued until March Term, 1942.

Roy McKittrick, Attorney-General, and B. Richards Creech Assistant Attorney-General, for appellant.

J. L Bess for respondent.

BLAIR P. J. Smith and Fulbright, JJ., concur.

OPINION

BLAIR, P. J.

This is an appeal from the Circuit Court of Howell County, Missouri, from a judgment of that court of July 31, 1941, setting aside an order of the Social Security Commission of Missouri, on an appeal by respondent here to said circuit court, and remanding the case to the Social Security Commission of Missouri for further review upon the application of respondent here for old age assistance.

We are met at the outset by a motion of the respondent for dismissal of the appeal on the ground that said appeal was not timely taken. This requires this court to determine within what time and in what manner an appeal may be taken from the circuit court in a social security case.

There is no controversy about the facts of such appeal. The final judgment or order of the circuit court was rendered July 31, 1941, and the trial court then finally adjourned the June, 1941, term of his court. On August 14, 1941, or fourteen days thereafter, at what we understand was a called term of the June, 1941, term of said circuit court, appellant here, the Social Security Commission of Missouri, filed a motion for a new trial and on the same day and following the overruling of said motion, an appeal was granted to said Social Security Commission to this court, and the trial court, by a nunc pro tunc order, endeavored to make its records relate back to July 31, 1941, and to make such records show that the filing of the motion for new trial and the granting of appeal to appellant occurred on July 31, 1941. We do not deem it necessary, in the view we take of the applicable statute, to consider the propriety of such alleged nunc pro tunc order.

Under Section 16, Laws of 1937, page 475, it is provided:

"Appeals may be had from the circuit court as in civil cases;" but this section was expressly repealed by Laws of 1939, Sec. 1, at page 736, and a new Section 16 was enacted in lieu thereof, and the new enactment provides:

"Appeals may be had by either party from the circuit court upon the record in the same manner as provided herein for appeals from the State Commission to the Circuit Court."

The same new section provides that,

"Any applicant aggrieved by the action of the State Commission by the denial of benefits in passing upon the appeal to the State Commission may appeal to the circuit court of the county in which such applicant resides within ninety days from the date of the action and decision appealed from."

Said Section 16, Laws of 1939, then proceeds to say what the State Commission shall do to expedite such appeals to the circuit court.

It is the contention of appellant that this is a separate scheme and a new provision for appeals and that the appellate practice in ordinary civil cases has no application; that the case is heard on appeal upon the record made before the State Social Security Commission and an appeal from the circuit court is allowed at any time within ninety days from the date of the order of the circuit court and that not even a motion for new trial is required.

It must be conceded that all appeals must be provided for by statute, or no appeal is allowable. The time and manner of such appeal is also governed entirely by statute. It is the opinion of this court that the General Assembly has provided for the time of such appeal when it said: "Appeals may be had by either party from the circuit court upon the record in the same manner as provided herein for appeals from the State Commission to the Circuit Court."

Such appeals are on the record made before the State Social Security Commission and no motion for new trial is provided for and such appeal may be taken at any time within ninety days from the...

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