Fillmore v. Reilly

CRAIL, P. J. This is an appeal by the defendant from a judgment in a case based on the allegations that the plaintiff had large sums of money in a joint safety deposit box issued in the name of plaintiff and defendant and to which both had access, and that the defendant withdrew said sums and took the same out of the box and retained the same without plaintiff’s consent to her damage in the sum of $48,750. To these allegations the defendant filed a specific and general denial. The defendant is the mother of the plaintiff.

The defendant files a brief containing 531 printed pages, but she does not specifically state the grounds upon which she seeks reversal. We find that at the bottom of page 43 of defendant’s brief is the following statement, which we assume is the chief contention of the defendant: “ . . . and this appellant feels that if the entire case—in other words, the ‘whole evidence’ of the case—is analyzed, it will be seen that Mrs. Fillmore’s testimony is so contradictory, inconsistent and unsatisfactory, as not to be sufficient in substantiality [462]to warrant a verdict in her favor for $20,000, or any other sum.” With this contention in mind the defendant reviews the entire evidence in the case, stating the same in the light most favorable to the defendant. The defendant forgets that it is the duty of this court on appeal to review the evidence in the light most favorable to the plaintiff (respondent), and that in this connection it is our duty merely to search the record to see if there is any substantial evidence to sustain the implied findings of the verdict. We have read and reread the defendant’s brief and are impressed with its unusual eloquence.

Plaintiff, on her part, contents herself with setting forth in her brief certain evidence, setting forth the book and page where it may be found in the record, which is substantial evidence to sustain the verdict. It is not for this court to weigh the evidence nor to determine where the truth lies when there is a conflict.

This case, so far as the pleadings were concerned, was presented to the jury as a lawsuit involving the simple issues of a damage case in which the complaint alleged a conversion and the answer denied it without alleging any new matter or defense. But the defendant in her testimony undertook to prove that the parties were joint adventurers or partners, and so for twenty-six days before the trial court and jury there was unfolded a drama involving the lives of the parties since about the year 1900—the exciting career of the celebrated Mary Miles Minter, another daughter; a story of the yet unsolved Taylor murder mystery ease, and certain insanity proceedings which had been instituted by the defendant against the plaintiff. This became a lawsuit truly jammed with drama, and it comes before us in 2,807 pages which give us a life story of the Shelby family, as well as the facts pertinent to the instant case.