Curtiss v. Bachman

42 P. 910, 110 Cal. 433, 1895 Cal. LEXIS 1076
California Supreme Court·Decided December 14, 1895·No. No. 15769·Published·Cited by 34 cases

Opinions

Harrison, J.

In an action brought in the superior court of San Francisco against the appellant by one Nettie Gilman, a preliminary injunction was issued by the court, and the respondents herein were the sureties in an undertaking given on her behalf upon the issuing of said injunction. The condition of the undertaking is: In case said injunction shall issue and remain in full force and effect, the said plaintiff will pay to the said parties enjoined such damages, not exceeding the .sum of five thousand dollars, as such parties may by reason of the said injunction sustain, if said superior court finally decide that the said plaintiff was not en[436] titled thereto.” The present action was brought to recover from the respondents the damage sustained- by reason of the issuance of the said injunction. Upon a former appeal in this cause (Curtiss v. Bachman, 84 Cal. 216) a judgment that had been rendered in favor of the plaintiff was reversed, with directions to sustain the defendant’s demurrer to the complaint. Upon the going down of the remittitur the plaintiff amended his complaint, and the cause was tried by the court without a jury, who found that the plaintiff had not sustained any damage by reason of the issuance or continuance of the injunction, and rendered judgment for the defendants. The plaintiff moved for a new trial upon the ground that this finding was not sustained by the evidence, and upon the denial of his motion has appealed therefrom^ and also from the judgment.

The action of Gilman v. Curtis, 66 Cal. 116, was for the purpose of determining the ownership of a certain policy of life insurance, and was commenced March 26, 1880. On the next day the court granted a restraining order by which the plaintiff herein was enjoined from collecting the money due upon the policy, and from transferring or delivering the policy, or the money due thereon, to-any other person, and was directed to show cause on a succeeding day why the order should not be continued in full force until the final judgment and decree in the-case. An undertaking in the sum of five hundred dollars was executed by the respondents herein upon the issuance of the said restraining order. On April 16th this order to show cause came on for hearing, and the court on that day ordered that the said restraining order be continued in full force and effect until the termination of the suit. Subsequently the defendant, appellant herein, moved to dissolve the injunction, and on July 30th his motion was denied. On the same day the court-ordered that the plaintiff file a bond in the sum of five-thousand dollars, and thereupon the undertaking sued on herein was executed by the sureties to the original Undertaking. The cause was tried in April, 1881, and [437] judgment rendered in favor of the plaintiff. That judgment was afterward reversed by this court (Gilman v. Curtis, supra), and upon a new trial a judgment was rendered by the court dismissing the action.

. The damages for which the plaintiff seeks to recover herein, and of which he gave evidence at the trial, consisted of moneys which he had paid to his attorneys, the costs incurred in the action of Gilman v. Curtis, supra, and the loss of time and injury to his business necessitated by the suit. We are of the opinion, however, that neither of these elements of damage is within the terms of the obligation of the defendants, and that the plaintiff failed to establish any right of action against them. The liability of the defendants is measured by the terms of their contract, and in the present action is limited to the damages that the plaintiff might sustain “ by reason of the said injunction.” Whatever expenses he was subjected to by reason of the suit, as distinguished from those sustained by reason of the injunction, are not damages within this contract of the defendants; and, as it rested upon the plaintiff to establish a cause of action against them, it was necessary for him to show, not only that he had sustained damage, but that the, damage which he had sustained was caused solely by reason of the injunction.

Counsel fees incurred by a defendant by reason of a preliminary injunction are recognized as a part of the damages for which he has a right to indemnity, and are within the undertaking which the plaintiff is required to give as a condition of procuring the injunction; but only such counsel fees as may be incurred after the injunction has been issued, and prior to the determination of the action, can be considered as within the rule. If the defendant, instead of attempting to remove the temporary injunction, seeks rather to prevent the issuance of a permanent injunction, or directs his efforts to defeating the action of the plaintiff, the expense of ■counsel fees thus incurred is an incident of the suit, and is not recoverable as damages sustained by reason [438] of the injunction. The allowance of counsel fees in suits on injunction bonds is exceptional, and should not be carried beyond the point to which former decisions have taken it” (Mitchell v. Hawley, 79 Cal. 301; San Diego Water Co. v. Steamship Co., 101 Cal. 216.) Counsel fees rendered in resisting a motion for a preliminary injunction are not within the terms of the undertaking, since they are not expenses made necessary “ by reason of the injunction.” (Sweet v. Mowry, 71 Hun, 381; Whiteside v. Noyac Cottage Assn., 84 Hun, 555), but are expenses incurred in the action as much as are counsel fees rendered in attempting to prevent the issuance of a permanent injunction (Thurston v. Haskell, 81 Me. 303); and an unsuccessful motion to dissolve an injunction does not authorize a recovery for the expense of counsel fees in making the motion. (Langdon v. Gray, 22 Hun, 511; Randall v. Carpenter, 88 N. Y. 293.) An exception to this rule is recognized when the court itself suspends its decision upon the motion until the hearing of the cause. (Andrews v. Glenville Woolen Co., 50 N. Y. 282.)

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Curtiss v. Bachman, 42 P. 910, 110 Cal. 433, 1895 Cal. LEXIS 1076 (Cal. 1895).

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