Brame v. Keystone Credit Corp.

76 F.2d 328, 1935 U.S. App. LEXIS 2535
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
DecidedApril 2, 1935
DocketNo. 3761
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 76 F.2d 328 (Brame v. Keystone Credit Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Brame v. Keystone Credit Corp., 76 F.2d 328, 1935 U.S. App. LEXIS 2535 (4th Cir. 1935).

Opinion

NORTHCOTT, Circuit Judge.

This is an appeal from a decree entered July 14, 1934, in the District Court of the United States for the Eastern District of Virginia, in the suit of Hare & Chase, Inc., et al., v. National Credit Corporation et al., and S. R. Brame et al. v. Hare & Chase, Inc. (Consolidated Causes). This suit was before this court under the title of General Finance Corporation et al. v. Keystone Credit Corporation et al., 50 F.(2d) 872, certiorari denied Adams v. Keystone Credit Corporation, 284 U. S. 684, 52 S. Ct. 201, 76 L. Ed. 578. A detailed statement of the facts in that case will be found in the opinion of this court and it is not necessary to repeat them here.

. On February 24, 1933, appellees and cross-appellants filed a notice of motion for a rule against the appellants and cross-ap-pellees to show cause why judgment should not be entered against them, jointly and severally, on an appeal and supersedeas bond executed by them in the court below upon the taking of the appeal to this court. An appeal was also taken to this court by Hare & Chase, Inc., at the same time that the appeal was taken by the appellant and cross-appellee, but no supersedeas was asked by Hare & Chase, and the bond given by that corporation was only for costs and did not include damages.

In affirming the decree of the court below, in the former hearing in this court, we decreed “that one-third of the costs on this appeal be assessed against the appealing National stockholders, one-third against Hare & Chase, and one-third against General Finance Corporation.”

A receiver had been appointed for certain funds involved in the original suit and the granting of the supersedeas prevented and delayed the payment, as ordered by the court below, of the funds in the hands of the receiver, to the appellees and cross-appellants. The appellees and cross-appellants claimed damages to the extent of the legal rate of interest, less the interest earned while in the hands of the receiver, because of being kept out of the use of this fund, and also claimed that certain expenditures from the fund became necessary because of the delay resulting from the appeal.

On April 3, 1933, appellants and cross-appellees filed their answer to the notice of motion, and on April 11, 1933, filed a supplemental answer. On April 21, 1933, the court below entered a decree holding that it had jurisdiction to entertain the motion for judgment and overruled objections to its jurisdiction and also denied a motion to dismiss the rule. Later the cause was referred to a special master to ascertain and report the amount of damages and costs, if any, payable to appellees and cross-appellants by Brame, principal, and Consolidated Indemnity & Insurance Company as surety on the said supersedeas bond, one Bazile being receiver for said Indemnity Company.

In July, 1933, the special master filed his report holding that the liability, under the supersedeas bond, amounted to the sum of $7,969.13, made up of various items for expenses such as premiums on the receiver’s bond, taxes, office expenses, etc., and premiums on depository bonds. The master, in his report, held that there was no liability under the bond for interest on the fund the payment of which was withheld from appellees and cross-appellants by reason of the delay brought about by the ap•peal. Both sides excepted to the master’s report and, after a hearing, the court below entered its decree in July, 1934, affirming the report of the special master, from which decree Brame and the surety brought this appeal and the appellees brought a cross-appeal.

Three questions are to be considered: (1) Did the court below have jurisdiction upon a rule issued in the original proceedings to determine the damages due under the supersedeas bond? (2) If the court did have jurisdiction, were the items allowed by the court below as damages properly so allowed? (3) Were the appellees and cross-appellants entitled to an amount equal to the difference between the legal [330]*330rate of interest and the interest earned while'in the hands of the1 receiver, on the sum withheld from them by virtue of the appeal and supersedeas?

As to the first question, it is contended on behalf of Brame and his surety on the bond that the action on the bond, in the absence of any award by this court on appeal, should be an original action and at law. We do not think this contention is sound. Sureties on a supersedeas bond in an equity proceeding become quasi parties to the suit and subject themselves to the jurisdiction of the court to the extent that a summary judgment may be rendered on the bond. The reason for this is plain; were it otherwise litigation would be multiplied endlessly. It is a well-recognized principle of equity that a court having jurisdiction of the principal case has the power to’ pass upon all its incidents and thus put an end to further litigation. As was said by the Supreme Court in the case of Pease v. Rathbun-Jones Engineering Co., 243 U. S. 273, 37 S. Ct. 283, 286, 61 L. Ed. 715, Ann. Cas. 1918C, 1147: “Some of the district courts, by formal rule of court require the bond to contain an.express agreement that the court may, upon notice to the sureties, proceed summarily against them in the original action or suit. See Rule 91, Ariz. Dist. Court Rules, adopted March 5, 1912; Rule 90, Wash. Dist. Court Rules, 1905. But this is not a general provision; nor is it a necessary one. For, as this court has said, sureties ‘become quasi parties to the proceedings, and subject themselves to the jurisdiction of the court, so that summary judgment may be rendered-on their bonds.’ Babbitt v. Finn (Babbitt v. Shields), 101 U. S. 7, 15, 25 L. Ed. 820, 822. The objection that a court of equity has no jurisdiction because there is an adequate remedy at law on the bond is not well taken. A court of equity, having jurisdiction of the principal case, will completely dispose of its incidents and put an end to further litigation. Applying this principle, equity courts, upon the dissolution of an injunction, commonly render a summary decree on injunction bonds.”

Some of the authorities cited on behalf of appellants and cross-appellees may apparently hold otherwise, but we are of the opinion that the principle laid down in the Pease Case, supra, applied to the instant case, sustains the jurisdiction of the court below to completely dispose of all matters incident to the suit, including the matter of a proper recovery upon the bond.

Having reached the conclusion that the court had jurisdiction, we have next to consider whether the’ items, allowed by the court below as damages, were properly allowed. We think they were. Every item allowed in the report of the special master, which allowance was approved by the court, was an item the payment of which was necessitated by the granting of the appeal. Had there been no supersedeas applied for and granted, the fund could have been paid over as directed by the court and the payment of these items made unnecessary. The condition of the bond given is as follows:

“Now the condition of the above obligation is such, that, if the said National Credit Corporation et al. and S. R. Brame et al. shall prosecute their appeal to effect and answer all damages and costs if they fail to make their plea good, then the obligation to be void; else to remain in full force and virtue.”
“S. R. Brame, . [Seal]

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Bluebook (online)
76 F.2d 328, 1935 U.S. App. LEXIS 2535, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/brame-v-keystone-credit-corp-ca4-1935.