Majority
Headnote
Amendment of pleadings after removal from District Qourt.} The Court of Common Pleas has power to allow amendment of pleadings in actions-removed to it from a District Court of the City of New York, to the-same extent,- and within the same limits as the District Court would have had if no such removal had taken place.[1]In respect to the first objection, it is sufficient to say that the written complaint and bill of particulars were not served until the 27th of September ; that the defendant’s attorney was then sick, and had been for some time, and that he did not see the bill of particulars showing that a part of the claim was for salary for the month of December, 1885, until a few days ago, and that he moved promptly as soon as the fact of this claim was discovered.
It is true, the plaintiff’s attorney claims that he served a bill of particulars before the cause was removed from the District Court; but this service, the plaintiff admits, was made by mail, pending the proceedings to remove the cause.
I can see no reason why this should have been done ; but if it was, defendant’s attorney denies having received it. And I think, upon the papers submitted to me, the defendant should be allowed to serve the amended answer, if this court has power to grant amendments in such cases.
. Indeed, it is made the duty of these .courts to allow amendments to the pleadings in the furtherance of justice at any time before final judgment. (Code, sec. 2944.)
Has this court less power, when such actions are removed to it ?
Plaintiff contends that the issues made by the pleadings in the court below are those to be tried on the removal of an action to this court and that there can be no amendment to them. In aid of his contention he cites Smith v. White ( 23 N. Y, 572 ); Salter v. Parkhurst ( 2 Daly, 240 ); Fagan v. Poor.[1]
I do not think these cases support him.
Smith v. White only decides that where an action has "been removed from a District Court to this court no appeal will lie to the Court of Appeals from a judgment of this -court without an order of the General Term allowing such appeal.
This decision is based upon the theory that the action continues in its nature to be an action in a District Court, although removed to this court for trial.
* In Fagan v. Poor (N. Y. Common Pleas, Special Term, August, 1886) the complaint in the District Court was for money paid at the defendant’s request, and for rent, and the answer was a general denial. After removal, defendant moved for leave to interpose an answer setting up payment of all rent due and a termination of the lease by consent of parties before the accruing of the rent sued for. Lauterbach & Spingarn, for the motion. W. C. Ca/rpenter, opposed. Allen, J.—The issues created by the pleadings in the court below are those to be tried on the removal of the action to this court. (See Salter v. Parkhurst, 2 Daly, 240 , and Smith v.White, 23 N. Y., 572 .) Motion for leave to amend answer denied, with costs. The ruling in the text seems to be supported by the analogous rule by which a referee to whom issues have been referred for trial may allow an amendment of the pleadings, which changes the issues to be tried by him.
The case of Salter v. Parkhurst (supra), at first sight, lends some countenance to plaintiff’s contention. In that case, after the removal of the action to this court, it was referred. On the trial before the referee he allowed the •complaint to be amended so as to charge the defendant’s separate estate, she being a married woman.
This amendment made the gist of the action one of which the District Court did not have original jurisdiction, and this court decided that it Avas error to allow such an amendment. This was all there was before the court for decision, and, I think, Avas all the court intended to decide.
It is true that in the course of the decision, Brady, J., in speaking of Smith v. White, says that that case “determines that the issues created by the pleadings in the court below are those to be tried on its removal to this court; ” but he immediately adds that it “ continues in all respects to be an action in a District Court, the trial of which is to be had in this court.”
If it continues to be, in effect, an action in a District Court, then it must be subject to the incidents of such an action, among which is the right of amendment .of the pleadings, within the limits of the jurisdiction of the District Courts.
And this seems to have been contemplated by the General Term, for Brady, J., says, “ The removal cannot be made until after issue joined; and the issues cannot be so changed that a subject, not of original jurisdiction, may be litigated against the consent of one of the parties.’’ This must be read in connection Avith the passage before quoted
I do not know the facts in the case of Fagan v. Poor; but the decision manifestly is based upon and follows. Salter v. Parkhurst, and I presume was decided under a similar state of facts.
I am, therefore, of the opinion that this court has power to permit amendments to pleadings, within the limits above indicated, where a proper case has been made out. And I am confirmed in it by the views expressed in Ludwig v. Minot ( 4 Daly, 481 ).
If no such power existed in this court justice might miscarry, as in this case, if it is true that the plaintiff’s-salary for the month of December, 1885, has been actually paid, and the defendants were not permitted to show that fact.
Motion granted upon the payment of $10 costs to plaintiff, and defendants’ stipulating not to postpone the trial of the action on account of such amendment being allowed.