Dengel v. Harvey

4 Pa. D. & C.3d 708, 1977 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 217
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Perry County
DecidedAugust 16, 1977
Docketno. 76-10
StatusPublished

This text of 4 Pa. D. & C.3d 708 (Dengel v. Harvey) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Perry County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dengel v. Harvey, 4 Pa. D. & C.3d 708, 1977 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 217 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1977).

Opinion

QUIGLEY, P.J.,

In this action, plaintiffs assert various causes of action and remedies generally cognizable in equity and at law, and preliminary objections alleging misjoinder, demurrer, motion to strike, motion to drop and motion for more specific pleadings have been filed.

The facts are basically, determined from the complaint, that plaintiffs purchased a house from [710]*710defendant Harvey with assistance from two real estate offices, an employe of each and a lending institution. The Stuard Derrick Agency fisted the house and the Grandon Agency sold it. Central Pennsylvania Savings Association inspected the premises, then loaned part of the money for its purchase.

It is alleged that all of defendants, with the exception of Central Pennsylvania Savings Association, actually knew of the insect infestation which, plaintiffs contend, make the house less valuable than the price paid for it and otherwise caused them irreparable damage. Plaintiffs feel that the only way they can be compensated is not to be paid damages but to rescind or set aside the transaction, get back all moneys they paid in connection with the purchase of the house, through an accounting, and be excused from the obligation to Central Pennsylvania Savings Association. Alternatively, they allege that, if rescission be not ordered, they be paid damages for the alleged wrong done to them and allege that the full amount of damages cannot be effectively determined without substantially dismantling the house. The former demands sound traditionally in equity; the latter at law, and the first question is a misjoinder issue. Before reaching this question, we note that it is clear that if plaintiffs have an adequate nonstatutory remedy at law, then all aspects of the case should be transferred to the law side, and if we conclude an adequate legal remedy is available, the misjoinder issue is moot.

If issues are particularly complicated, the damage is indefinite and where fraud is alleged or an accounting sought, although a legal remedy is available, it may be that that remedy is not adequate and if that is the case, equity will take [711]*711jurisdiction: Universal Film Exchanges, Inc. v. Budco, Inc., 44 D. & C. 2d 695 (1968).

In this case, the damages axe uncertain because of the nature of the alleged defects. To adequately fully determine their extent, it may be that the house may well have to be dismantled. It may be that plaintiffs’ only adequate remedy is to rescind and to receive a return of all moneys paid by them. Accordingly, adequacy of the legal remedy is doubted.

Regarding the misjoinder issue, plaintiffs argue that the effect of Pa.R.C.P. 1508, 2229, and 1020 read together not only authorizes joinder of parties and causes, but compels them to join all parties and causes on pain of suffering a bar to some of their counts. This is not so. Rule 1020 applies only to actions of trespass and assumpsit as they relate to each other and would, therefore, not appear to be appropriate, and Rule 1508 relates only to equity. It is stated in 8 Standard Pa. Pract. §160, as follows:

“While the plaintiff may under the Rules of Civil Procedure join two or more causes cognizable in equity, all of the causes so joined must be cognizable in equity, and no authority is conferred to join a legal cause of action with an equitable cause of action in the same complaint.

“Where a legal cause of action is joined with an equitable cause of action in the same complaint in equity, the plaintiff may not justify the misjoinder under the equitable principle that once equity takes jurisdiction of a matter, it will dispose of all the questions presented even though part of the relief sought is not cognizable in equity.”

Despite this general principle, there is authority to the contrary which the court feels is controlling [712]*712in the matter at hand. In Allegheny Electric Co., Inc. v. Ross, 107 Pitt. L. J. 376 (1958), plaintiff was allowed to plead a cause of action in the alternative even though the alternative, by itself, was not cognizable in equity, on the principle that when there is a basis for equitable jurisdiction, equity will decide all phases of the controversy even though some phases may be nonequitable in nature. Plaintiff’s first cause of action sought damages for fraud and breach of fiduciary duty while the second, equitable in nature, sought the transfer of certain stock to plaintiff that defendants had in their possession. Also joined was an alternative cause of action at law seeking monetary recovery if the second cause of action was not allowed. At page 378, the court stated:

“A court of equity can do complete justice between the parties even though it may have to decide matters which would not in themselves have warranted the Court’s assuming jurisdiction in the first place. If there is a legitimate connection between the equitable and the non-equitable issues, equity will decide the whole controversy.”

A similar principle was enunciated in Seif v. Titus, 90 Dauph. 290 (1969), discussed in plaintiffs brief in response to preliminary objections. In that case, the court dismissed a motion to strike based on the contention that plaintiff had misjoined causes of action (one was legal and the other equitable), stating that “since the same facts are the basis for the alternative claims, it is proper and permissible to join them in one complaint.”

Based on these principles and given the fact that the primary relief sought is equitable in nature while the legal claims are ancillary thereto, the [713]*713court holds that it will hear all issues, whether equitable or legal, sitting as a court of equity. Even if the matter at hand were based solely on equitable principles, the court, even though acting as an equity court, could award monetary damages instead of the equitable relief sought if such action would, in the court’s judgment, adequately compensate the wronged party. See Linett v. Linett, 434 Pa. 441, 254 A. 2d 7 (1969); McGovern v. Spear, 463 Pa. 269, 344 A. 2d 826 (1975); Solomon v. Cedar Acres East, Inc., 455 Pa. 496, 317 A. 2d 283 (1974); Ackerman v. North Huntingdon Township, 437 Pa. 49, 261 A. 2d 570 (1970).

It is noted that the decision in Myshko v. Galanti, 453 Pa. 412, 309 A. 2d 729 (1973), does not compel a course of action different from that which the court intends to follow here, since in that case plaintiff did, in fact, make an election of a legal remedy by filing a legal action first, followed by an equitable action. In the present case, however, plaintiff has specified that the relief in equity that he seeks is the primary relief sought. Unlike plaintiff in Myshko, in which a prior assumpsit action was pending, plaintiffs here did not initiate separate actions nor did they indicate in any manner, except alternatively, that their action at law is adequate; in fact, they specifically allege otherwise.

In addition, the court is of the belief that, although the entire transaction culminating in the sale of the property to plaintiffs no doubt encompassed a period of time and contacts with different individuals and organizations, the cause of action against all defendants does, in fact, arise out of the same transaction or occurrence.

Thus, defendant Harvey’s motion to strike and its [714]*714demurrer will be dismissed as will Murdock’s mis-joinder motion and Central Pennsylvania Savings Association’s motion to strike (I).

Defendants, Grandon Real Estate, Rose Marie T.

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Related

Solomon v. Cedar Acres East, Inc.
317 A.2d 283 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1974)
McGovern v. Spear
344 A.2d 826 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1975)
Bogash v. Elkins
176 A.2d 677 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1962)
Linett v. Linett
254 A.2d 7 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1969)
Ackerman v. North Huntingdon Township
261 A.2d 570 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1970)
Reardon v. Wilbur
272 A.2d 888 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1971)
HORNSBY v. LOHMEYER
72 A.2d 294 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1950)
Columbia Casualty Co. v. Westmoreland County
74 A.2d 86 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1950)
Myshko v. Galanti
309 A.2d 729 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1973)

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Bluebook (online)
4 Pa. D. & C.3d 708, 1977 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 217, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dengel-v-harvey-pactcomplperry-1977.