Opinion
No. 8104.
January 26, 1954.
APPEAL FROM FIRST JUDICIAL DISTRICT COURT, PARISH OF CADDO, JAMES U. GALLOWAY, J.
W. T. McCain, Colfax, for appellant.
Cook, Clark Egan, Shreveport, for appellee.
Our first concern is appellee's motion to dismiss the appeal. The motion is based upon the fact that as the appeal was taken by oral motion in open court at a term other than that at which the judgment was rendered the effort to appeal was abortive; that under these circumstances it is sacramental that the appeal be taken and perfected by petition and order of court thereon and service thereof upon the appellee. Appellant has not filed any opposition to the motion to dismiss.
The judgment from which plaintiff sought to appeal was signed July 1, 1953. It was not until October 30, 1953 that counsel for plaintiff by oral motion in open court asked the court a quo of the First Judicial District for and was granted the orders of appeal made the subject of this legal issue.
Manifestly, therefore, the orders of appeal were sought at a term subsequent to that in which the judgment was signed, since the new term of said court commenced in September, 1953.
In Jacobsen v. McGarry, 1933, 178 La. 79, 150 So. 838, 839, in commenting upon the basis for dismissal of the appeal upon circumstances similar to those presented here, the court said:
"Citation of appeal is dispensed with only when the appeal is applied for, either by petition or by motion, in open court, at the same term at which the judgment is rendered. Code Prac. arts. 573, 574. Under a fiction of law the appellee is considered as then in court. But, when the term passes, the appellee is entitled to formal citation. Code Prac. arts. 581, 582, 583. In such a case citation is the ground work, and without it no proceedings can be had on the appeal. Walker v. Martolo, 16 La. 50. Hence appellee's motion to dismiss raises a jurisdictional question, not a technical question, and must prevail."
The motion is well founded and fatal to the appeal herein taken by appellant for the reasons above set forth. Code of Practice art. 573; Bass v. Lane, 1930, 169 La. 681, 125 So. 853; Pool v. Gaudin, 1945, 207 La. 403, 31 So.2d 424; Berg v. Horne, 1946, 26 So.2d 753; Graves v. D'Artois, 1946, 210 La. 857, 28 So.2d 457.
For the reasons herein given, this appeal is dismissed at appellant's cost.