Cragg v. Levinson

87 N.E. 121, 238 Ill. 69
CourtIllinois Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 15, 1908
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 87 N.E. 121 (Cragg v. Levinson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Illinois Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cragg v. Levinson, 87 N.E. 121, 238 Ill. 69 (Ill. 1908).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Farmer

delivered the opinion of the court:

It is not contended by appellant that the allegations of the bill were sufficient to make a case of irreparable injury as defined in the law, but it is contended that the bill was sufficient, upon its face, to authorize a court of equity to take jurisdiction of the case by way of injunction for the prevention of a multiplicity of suits. The bill charges that appellee had committed repeated acts of trespass against appellant’s property and declared his intention to continue repetitions of similar acts, on account of which appellant would be required to bring numerous actions at law, causing great expense and vexation. Appellee' contends that to warrant the injunction to prevent a multiplicity of suits there must be different persons assailing the same right; that where the suit is between two persons, only, and the same trespass is repeated by the same person, the injury being susceptible of compensation in damages, equity will not interfere. A number of cases decided by this court are cited in support of that proposition, and three are especially relied upon as being conclusive. They are Commissioners of Highways v. Green, 156 Ill. 504, Harms v. Jacobs, 158 id. 505, and Chicago Public Stock Exchange v. McClaughry, 148 id. 372. We think there is a plain distinction between those cases and the case at bar. While the general rule is as stated by counsel for appellee and was so held in the cases above referred to, there is an exception to the rule which was recognized in those cases, and that is, where the rights of the complainant have been established by an action at law, then equity may interfere to prevent a repetition of trespasses although committed or threatened by only one person, even though the threatened injury may not be irreparable. The case of Jerome v. Ross, 7 Johns. Ch. 315, (opinion by Chancellor Kent,) states the rule as contended for by appellee and does not appear to recognize any exception to it. The following language is taken from the opinion in that case: “A court of equity will sometimes interfere to prevent a multiplicity of suits by a bill of peace. The principle is stated in Tenham v. Herbert, 2 Atk. 483, and in Eldridge v. Hill, 2 Johns. Ch. 281. But that is only in cases where the right is controverted by numerous persons, each standing on his own pretensions, and it has no application to the case of one or more persons choosing to persevere in acts of trespass in despite of suits and recoveries against them. A troublesome man may vex and harass his neighbor by throwing down his fences and turning cat-tie upon his grounds, or by passing over them and otherwise annoying him; but it is to be presumed that repeated recoveries for damages, with the punishment of costs and such smart money as a jury would naturall)r= give, would soon effectually correct any such disposition.” That case has been followed by the courts in a number of States without apparently recognizing any exception to the rule there laid down. But other courts of equal respectability and number, while following the rule announced by Chancellor Kent in cases not involving the exception, have not followed it where the exception was involved. Necessarily, decisions of Chancellor Kent must have great weight with courts, but an examination of the opinion in Jerome v. Ross we think malees it apparent that the chancellor was stating the rule as applicable to the facts in the case under consideration. In that case the complainant sought to enjoin the agents of the canal commissioners from taking from premises he claimed to own, rock for the purpose of constructing a dam for the use and benefit of the canal. The defendants answered, claiming they had authority to take the rock, setting up in their answer particularly the grounds of their authority. The court held they did have such authority The bill alleged that several actions had been commenced in a court of record to recover damages for the trespasses' but none of them had been brought to trial; that one action had been instituted before a justice of the peace in which plaintiff recovered a judgment of $25 damages. The answer admitted the recovery before the justice of the peace but alleged the judgment was erroneous and that defendants had brought certiorari for the purpose of having the judgment reversed. The right of the complainant, therefore, being in dispute and the threatened injury not being irreparable but capable of compensation in damages, it was not a case justifying the writ of injunction under the rule that equity will not take jurisdiction to try and determine mere legal titles, even though the claimed right of defendant had not been sustained. Mr. Pomeroy says in a note to section 1357 °f his work on Equity Jurisprudence that the rule announced in Jerome v. Ross “is opposed to the modern decisions of the highest ability and authority.”

Recurring to the above mentioned cases decided by this court, in Commissioners of Highways v. Green, supra, which was a bill for an injunction to restrain trespasses, complainant alleged he was the owner of certain land upon which he had erected a fence and that defendants destroyed the . fence, and when he attempted to re-build it again destroyed it and threatened that they would tear down any fence he would erect thereafter, and that a multiplicity of suits would result unless defendants were restrained. The answer denied that defendants had entered upon complainant’s land and alleged that the premises in dispute were a public highway; that complainant had erected his fence in the highway, and that defendants, in the discharge of their official duties, had caused it to be removed. The court, after discussing the subject of the jurisdiction of a court of equity to enjoin a trespass and the grounds authorizing the exercise of the jurisdiction, said (p. 509) : “To entitle a party to maintain a bill of peace or bill to prevent a multiplicity of suits at law there must be a right claimed affecting many persons. If the right is disputed between two persons, only, not for themselves and all others in interest but for themselves alone, the bill will not' lie unless the complainant’s right has been established at law.” The bill prayed an injunction solely for the prevention of a multiplicity of suits. Upon a hearing in the circuit court a decree was entered awarding an injunction. That decree was reversed by this court upon the ground that the case was not one justifying the issuing of the writ.

In Harms v. Jacobs, supra, the bill was for an injunction to restrain defendant from committing trespasses upon premises claimed to be owned by the complainant. The bill alleged defendant had entered upon his premises, destroyed his fences and committed other unlawful acts set out in the bill, and that he threatens to repeat said trespasses and claims a prescriptive title to the land and threatens to take possession of the same; that he is litigious and quarrelsome and pays no attention to fines, peace bonds and judgments in trespass; that to obtain a final judgment in an action at law against him would take a long time, owing to the congested calendar of the court, and to resort to such remedies would be a practical denial of justice. The answer denied the allegations of the bill; alleged defendant was the owner of the property in question, and denied the jurisdiction of the court to entertain the bill on the ground that complainant had an adequate remedy at law. The bill also alleged that defendant was insolvent.

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Bluebook (online)
87 N.E. 121, 238 Ill. 69, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cragg-v-levinson-ill-1908.