Chester v. Life Ass'n of America

4 F. 487
CourtUnited States Circuit Court
DecidedJuly 1, 1880
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 4 F. 487 (Chester v. Life Ass'n of America) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Circuit Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Chester v. Life Ass'n of America, 4 F. 487 (uscirct 1880).

Opinion

Hammond, D. J.

This is a bill for the rescission of a contract or fo^ an account, as the right may appear, and the defendant company is under an injunction restraining it from selling, under a deed of trust, the lands of the plaintiff to secure a debt due the company. The parties being at issue and the cause ready for trial, one William S. Relfe presents his petition, stating that the insurance company, having become insolvent, has been, by a decree of the proper court in Missouri, dissolved; and that he, by operation of law and the said decree, has become invested with the right to all its assets, including the debt due by the plaintiff, and has been charged with the duty of collecting them. He asks to be made a party defendant, and to proceed to trial without delay, so that the injunction may be dissolved and he allowed to enforce the trust. The plaintiff, on the other hand, presents a supplemental bill setting uj) the same facts, and asks leave to file it against Relfe, and thereby to revive the suit, and resists the application of the petitioner to become a defendant on his own motion.

The loose practice condemned by Chancellor Cooper in the case of Stretch v. Stretch, 2 Tenn. Ch. 140, and supposed by him not to be authorized by the Tennessee Code or the supreme court, has created a very general confusion on the subject of bringing in new parties to a chancery suit in the [489]*489state courts, from which this court is not entirely exempt, because of the difficulty experienced of abandoning a habit of practice acquired in one court when coming into the other. The learned counsel for the petitioner here insists that this application is supported by the English cases, and frequent recognitions by the federal courts, and I have taken this occasion to examine the subject with a view to ascertain the proper practice. There can be no doubt whatever that Relfe’s interest is of that character which renders it necessary for the plaintiff to bring him in as a party, and that without his presence as a defendant the suit could not proceed. There has been a devolution of interest by operation of law, but he does not occupy the attitude of a purchaser pendente lite, to be brought in .or not at the election of the plaintiff. lie represents the company, as well as owns its title, and he alone, the company being dissolved, can account for it, if an account shall be necessary.

The case comes, therefore, precisely within the category provided for by equity rule 57, and under all the authorities the plaintiff cannot proceed without a supplemental hill in the nature of a bill of revivor. Kennedy v. Georgia Bank, 8 How. 586, 610; Clarke v. Matthewson, 12 Pet. 164; Justice v. McBroom, 1 Lea, 555, at page 558; Northman v. Insurance Co. 1 Tenn. Ch. 317; Stretch v. Stretch, 2 Tenn. Ch. 140; Steele v. Taylor, 1 Minn. 274; Slack v. Walcott, 3 Mason, 508; Anderson v. Railroad, 2 Woods, 628; 2 Danl. Ch. Pr. (5th Ed.) c. 33, p. 1506 et seq.

But the court has no power to compel the plaintiff to revive. He may file a new bill, if he choose, or never revive. He might, I take it, go to Missouri, and file his hill there against Relfe. Thompson v. Hill, 5 Yerg. 418; Spencer v. Wray, 1 Ver. 463; Anon. 3 Atk. 486.

This would seem a sufficient reason for not allowing the petitioner, against the consent of the plaintiff, to become a defendant to this suit, were it not manifest that he has an interest in ending this suit, at least, so far as to procure a dissolution of the injunction, which restrains him from realizing his debt by a sale of his security. This is, it seems to [490]*490me, all the interest he has in pressing a trial after the suit has become so defective that it can never proceed against him without a revivor. There are, undoubtedly, cases — generally, those where a decree has been rendered and there has subsequently been a change of parties — in which the defendant himself or his representative may revive a suit by supplemental hill in eases of strict revivor, or by original bill in the nature of a supplemental bill in other cases; but he cannot do this by petition or motion. Thompson v. Hill, supra; 2 Danl. Ch. Pr. (5th Ed.) 1539, and notes.

But where the only interest of the representative is to dissolve an injunction, which is this case, he does not proceed by a bill to revive. 2 Danl. Ch. Pr. 1539, at note 8. It is said he must proceed in the ordinary way to procure a dissolution of the injunction,, and I find that to be by motion for a rule that the injunction stand dissolved, unless the plaintiff shall within a short time, usually 12 days, file his supplemental bill or bill of revivor. Kerr, Inj. 633, and cases; 2 Danl. Ch. Pr. (5th Ed.) 1539, note 7 and cases; Id. 1544, note 1 and cases; Id. 1679, note 5 and cases; Thompson v. Hill, and eases cited. This furnishes the defendant here a sufficient remedy to get rid of the injunction, and I have no doubt his petition could be entertained for that purpose; for whatever one may do by motion he may do by petition, and it is proper to file one wherever intricate facts are to be stated as a basis of the motion. 2 Danl. Ch. Pr. 1592, 1603. But that is not the purpose for which this petition is offered, and if it were it would be dismissed, in the face of an application by the plaintiff to file his supplemental bill. Even where the defendant may file a supplemental bill preference will be given to the application of the plaintiff to file his supplemental bill. Carow v. Mowatt, 1 Edw. Ch. 9.

The case most relied on by the learned counsel for the petitioner is White v. Hall, 1 Russ. & Myl. 332. But see Bozon v. Bolland, Id. 69. He also relies on Young v. Everest, Id. 426. In the first case the father, who was named as one of the executors in the will, was out of the jurisdiction when the bill was filed, and, it being a bill against the executors, he was [491]*491allowed to become a party on Ms own application. In the other case the stranger to the record did not become a party, but appeared to protect his interest in the distribution of a fund in a case where, before decree, lie might have become a quasi party by petition. Both of these cases fall within tho exception mentioned by Mr. Justice Bradley in Anderson v. The Railroad, supra; 2 Woods, 628, 630; Danl. Ch. Pr. 540, note 1, and cases; Id. 153, and notes; Id. 281, and notes 7-9; Id. 287, note 2; Id. 1506 et seq. And see Barribeau v. Brant, 17 How. 43, 46; Ransom v. Daris, 18 How. 295.

Mr. Chancellor Cooper says, in his note to Daniell, that “no such practice is known in equity as making a person a defendant upon his own application, over the objection of the complainant.” 2 Danl. 287, note 2. And in Stretch v. Stretch, supra, he mentions as the only exception the case of trustees and beneficiaries. Mr. Justice Bradley, in Anderson v. The Railroad, supra, adverts to other exceptions which he mentions, such as scandal against a stranger, or whore he is a purchaser pendente lite, whore the applicants are creditors allowed to prove their debts, or t-liey are persons belonging to a class for or against whom a suit.is brought.

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Bluebook (online)
4 F. 487, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/chester-v-life-assn-of-america-uscirct-1880.