Steele v. Davis

• Decision Date: 30 April 1871
• Citation: Steele v. Davis, 52 Tenn. 75 (Tenn. 1871)
• Parties: D. P. Steele and others v. W. H. Davis.
• Court: Tennessee Supreme Court

52 Tenn. 75

D. P. Steele and others

v.W. H. Davis.

Supreme Court of Tennessee.

April Term, 1871.

FROM LAUDERDALE.

Appeal in error from Circuit Court at Ripley.W. P. BOND, J.

J. C. MARLEY for Plaintiffs in Error.

WILKINSON & WILKINSON for Defendant in Error.

TURNEY, J., delivered the opinion of the Court.

It has been repeatedly held by this Court, “A bill of exceptions to become a part of the record must be made up and signed by the judge at the term in which the trial is had.”

This means that, if the bill of exceptions is incomplete in any particular, it is not in the power of the Court to change it--that as it is signed by the Court, so it must remain and continue, unless corrected or changed during the term at which the trial was had.

The object of the rule is to avoid the evil consequences of mistakes, or forgetfulness of testimony, that would necessarily come about in the time intervening between term and term.

The term “bill of exceptions,” as used in the reports, means an entire thing, a record of the evidence and ruling of the Court in the cause, and it is as such that it must be made up and signed at the term of trial.

To have the rule to mean less or more is to make it mean nothing.If it can be added to for one purpose, it can be for all purposes.If it (the bill of exceptions) may be amended in one particular, it may be in every.And so the entire bill of exceptions could be, and often would be, changed throughout.

To add to or take from it, after it is signed, and after the adjournment of the Court, is in violation of the rule.Such additions or diminution can not be regarded as part of the bill of exceptions.

Sec. 2878 of the Code does not war with this view.The record there mentioned has reference alone to the minutes of the Court read in the presence of, and signed each morning by the Court, to be preserved as evidences of the judgments, decrees, and orders of the Court without reference to the testimony upon which they are based.

But if this were not so, the section can not apply.If we take the judgment of the Court as it appears upon the minutes, and the bill of exceptions as presented in this record, we find each is perfect, and without error upon its face, but inconsistent with the other; and to find in which is the error, we must look to extraneous circumstances, both being equally solemn under the rule insisted upon.

We are not, however, in this dilemma.An appeal from the judgment of a Circuit Court means an appeal from the conclusions and orders of that Court as expressed upon the record-book, these conclusions or orders being the deductions drawn by the Court from the evidences presented to the Court, or the predicates of the...