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Alvin B. Smith, Appellee, v. Mrs. J. S. DeHay, Appellant, and Ora Mae Smith, Appellee

Kansas Supreme Court1954-06-12No. No. 39,322
176 Kan. 422271 P.2d 251

Summary

Holding. The district court judgment is affirmed. All proceedings below were conducted in conformity with the applicable detainer statutes, and the appellant failed to demonstrate any reversible error.

Smith brought an action in city court against DeHay for peaceable entry and forcible detainer, along with a claim for unpaid rent. DeHay's demurrer was overruled, and the city court entered judgment for $532 in rent owed and restitution of the property. The case was then appealed to district court, where the parties stipulated that monthly rent was $120 and that no payments had been made since the city court judgment. The district court overruled DeHay's oral demurrer and rendered judgment for restitution plus $1,188 in rent and costs.

DeHay appealed to the appellate court, raising eleven alleged errors regarding the trial court's proceedings and the judgment rendered. The appellate court examined the record and found that all proceedings complied with the applicable detainer statutes. The court rejected DeHay's arguments, including her challenge to the double rent calculation, and found no reversible error in the district court's decision.

Summary generated by law.co from the public-domain opinion. The opinion text itself is public domain.

Key issues

  • Compliance with detainer statutes in forcible detainer proceedings
  • Sufficiency of verified rent account without verified denial
  • Calculation and award of double rent in detainer actions
  • Standard of review and burden of proving error on appeal

Procedural posture

The case originated in city court, was appealed to district court where it was retried, and is now before the appellate court on DeHay's second appeal.

Authorities cited

No cited authorities resolved to law.co cases yet.

Opinion

majority opinion

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Price, J.:

This was an action in peaceable entry and forcibledetainer and for recovery of money on a verified account for rent due. From an adverse judgment, one of the two defendants has appealed.

The action was filed in the city court of Wichita and personal service of summons was made on defendant DeHay. Subsequently plaintiff filed a motion to make Ora Mae Smith, his wife, a co-owner of the property in question, an additional party defendant. This motion was sustained. Such additional party defendant then filed a verified answer seeking relief against defendant DeHay in harmony with plaintiff’s verified complaint.

Following several hearings and continuances, defendant DeHay’s (hereinafter referred to as defendant) demurrer to the pleadings on the ground they did not state a cause of action was overruled. On April 21, 1953, the matter came on for trial, and at the conclusion thereof the court rendered judgment against defendant in the amount of $532 for rent due to date of judgment, and for restitution of the premises. Defendant then appealed to the district court.

In July, 1953, the action came on for trial. Plaintiff and the additional party defendant moved for judgment on the pleadings as to rent due on the ground that defendant had not filed a verified denial to the verified rent account filed by plaintiff. The record then shows that after informal argument and colloquy between court and counsel it was stipulated by the parties that the monthly rental of the property in question was $120, and that no rent had been paid by defendant since the date of the judgment in the city court. Defendant was in default of pleadings but through her counsel stated that she was standing on her oral demurrer. This demurrer was overruled, and after further proceedings the court rendered judgment for the restitution of the premises and entered a money judgment for rent due in the amount of $1,188, and for costs.

Defendant’s motion for a new trial was overruled, and she has appealed through counsel other than the attorney who represented her in the courts below.

Defendant alleges some eleven specifications of error which attack each and every step and action taken by the trial court leading up to and including the overruling of her motion for a new trial. In our opinion it is unnecessary to take up and discuss each alleged error. An examination of the record indicates that all proceedings below were had in conformity to the various provisions of Article 13, Chapter 61, G. S. 1949. Furthermore, there is no merit to defendant’s contention with respect to the rendition of judgment for double rent from the date of the appeal bond to the date of judgment. (G. S. 1949, 61-1011.) We pause to note, however, in answer to a request contained in the brief of appellees, that with respect to the matter of double rent the extent of this court’s jurisdiction is to affirm, reverse or modify the judgment below.

Despite the urging by counsel for defendant that this court should take this opportunity to clarify previous interpretations concerning actions of this nature, we are of the opinion, as heretofore stated, that applicable provisions of our detainer statutes were followed in the trial of this case and that further discussion thereof would add nothing to the law on the subject.

A presumption of validity attaches to a judgment of a district court, and this presumption obtains and continues until it has been made affirmatively to appear that error, which is never presumed, has been committed. (Quivira, Inc. v. Quivira Co., Inc., 173 Kan. 339, 245 P. 2d 972.)

No error being shown, the judgment of the trial court is therefore affirmed.