Reese v. Caffee

• Decision Date: 29 November 1892
• Docket Number: 16,043
• Citation: 32 N.E. 720,133 Ind. 14
• Parties: Reese et al. v. Caffee et al
• Court: Indiana Supreme Court

32 N.E. 720

133 Ind. 14

Reese et al. v. Caffee et al

No. 16,043

Supreme Court of Indiana

November 29, 1892

From the Franklin Circuit Court.

Judgment affirmed.

J. I Little, D. W. McKee and E. O'Hair, for appellees.

F. M Alexander, for appellants.

OPINION

Coffey, J.

This was an action in ejectment, in the usual form, instituted by the appellees, as trustees of the Christian Church, of the town of Laurel, Indiana, against the appellants, as trustees of the Methodist Protestant Church of the same town. Issue was formed by filing the general denial. A trial of the cause, by the court, resulted in a finding and judgment for the appellees. The appellants assign as error that the Circuit Court erred in overruling their motion for a new trial.

The only matters discussed by counsel for the appellants, in their brief, relate to alleged error in the admission of evidence and the insufficiency of the evidence to support the finding of the court.

The first three reasons assigned by the appellants, in their motion for a new trial, are as follows:

"First. The court erred in admitting the evidence of Alexander W. Biegle and Joseph I. Little over the objection of the defendants, tending to prove that about the year 1869 the Presbyterian Church of the United States of America and the Constitutional Presbyterian Church of the town of Laurel, Indiana, fused, or united, as one church, and thereby the White Water Presbytery became the owner of the church property in controversy in this suit, which, before that time, was owned and held by the trustees of the Constitutional Presbyterian Church of the town of Laurel, as trustees, and in trust for said congregation.

"Second. The court erred in permitting the plaintiffs to prove, by parol, that they were the owners of said property, over the objections of the defendants.

"Third. The court erred in permitting the plaintiffs to prove, by parol, over the objection of the defendants, the usages, rules, regulations and ecclesiastical laws of the Presbyterian Church of the United States."

The first reason assigned for a new trial is quite indefinite and uncertain, but treating it as sufficient, we have carefully read all the evidence of the two witnesses named and find nothing objectionable in the testimony of either. Indeed, so far as shown by the bill containing the evidence, the testimony of Biegle seems to have been admitted without objection or exception on the part of the appellants. The second and third reasons assigned for a new trial are entirely too indefinite and uncertain to present any question for the consideration of this court.

The rule is that the cause assigned for a new trial must be sufficiently definite and specific as not to impose upon either the trial or Appellate Court the task of searching the record for the alleged erroneous ruling. Stewart v. Ritterskamp, 54 Ind. 357; Craig v. Ensey, 63 Ind. 140; Knisely v. Hire, 2 Ind.App. 86, 28 N.E. 195.

To find the supposed errors referred to in the second and third reasons for a new trial it would be necessary to search the record containing the evidence. This we can not do.

The other reasons assigned by the appellants for a new trial call in question the sufficiency of the evidence to support the finding of the court.

The land in controversy was conveyed by James Conwell and wife to Henry Vanbergen and others, as Trustees of the Constitutional Presbyterian Church, of the town of Laurel, on the 14th day of March, 1846.

The evidence tends to prove that the "Constitutional Presbyterian Church" was the organization sometimes called the "New School Presbyterian Church." About the year 1869 what was known as the "New School Presbyterians" and the "Old School Presbyterians" were united, and from that time up to the present the organization has been known as "The Presbyterian Church," or "The Presbyterian Church of the United States of America." The church is governed by ecclesiastical bodies, the lowest being known by the name of the Church Sessions, and the next in rank above the Church Sessions is known as the Presbytery. The church at Laurel, in Franklin county, is within the jurisdiction of the Presbytery known as the White Water Presbytery. On the 10th day of March, 1872, the appellants leased the...