Evans v. Broadhead

233 So. 2d 771, 1970 Miss. LEXIS 1667
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 23, 1970
DocketNo. 45708
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 233 So. 2d 771 (Evans v. Broadhead) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Evans v. Broadhead, 233 So. 2d 771, 1970 Miss. LEXIS 1667 (Mich. 1970).

Opinion

JONES, Justice:

There are two cases considered here because of the questions presented.

As to the first assignment, alleging that the court erred in not transferring the case to circuit court, it is sufficient, we think, to say the bill sought to cancel a cloud on the title to real estate, an injunction to prevent acts of alleged trespass and discovery. The court did not err in this respect.

The other matter, which disposes of the case, requires more discussion.

The first complaint was filed on or prior to November 5, 1964, seeking to cancel a cloud on title and an injunction because of a trespass alleged to have occurred on or about May 1, 1964, in which case it was charged defendants had destroyed 178 pine trees, 1130 oaks, 724 gums, 20 poplars, 1 cypress, 3 cedars, and 1075 trees of other species. Damages called “punitive damages” were sought in the sum of $36,215.06, said amount being figured at the amount of penalty for the trees fixed by Section 1075, Mississippi Code of 1942 Annotated (1956).

A special demurrer was filed, alleging failure to deraign title. On January 15, 1965, the demurrer was sustained.

An amended bill was then filed on May 18, 1966, in which title was deraigned, and the same penalties sought, as well as the other relief asked in the first bill. A special demurrer to this bill for non-joinder of parties was filed. The demurrer as to non-joined parties was sustained on October 19, 1966, with leave to complainants to amend within thirty days; otherwise the case would stand dismissed.

On January 12, 1967, motion to reinstate was filed and denied or dismissed on July 13, 1967.

[773]*773The first case bore Number 7147 on the docket of the Court.

Cause Number 7636 was then filed as a new case on July 21, 1967, more than three years after the accrual of the trespass action of May 1, 1964.

Defendants pled in bar Section 1087, Mississippi Code of 1942 Annotated (1956) which reads as follows:

An action for any specific penalty given by this chapter may be prosecuted in any court of competent jurisdiction within twelve months from the time the injury was committed, and not after; and a recovery of any penalty herein given shall not be a bar to any action for further damages, or to any criminal prosecution for any such offense as herein enumerated. A party, if he so elect, may, under any of the provisions of this chapter, claim less than the penalty given.

Complainants replied with Section 744, reading as follows:

If an action, duly commenced within the time allowed, the writ shall be abated, or the action otherwise avoided or defeated, by the death of any party thereto, or for any matter of form, or if, after verdict for the plaintiff, the judgment shall be arrested, or if a judgment for the plaintiff shall be reversed on appeal, the plaintiff may commence a new action for the same cause, at any time within one year after the abatement or other determination of the original suit, or after reversal of the judgment therein; and his executor or administrator may, in case of his death, commence such new action, within the said one year.

This section is preceded by Sections 723 and 731 as follows:

Section 723
The provisions of this chapter shall not apply to any suit which is or shall be limited by any statute to be brought within a shorter time than is prescribed in this chapter, but such suit shall be brought within the time that may be limited by such statute.
Section 731
All actions and suits for any penalty or forfeiture on any penal statute, brought by any person to whom the penalty or forfeiture is given, in whole or in part, shall be commenced within one year next after the offense was committed, and not after.

The issue thus before us is whether Section 1087 applies, or whether the limitation in this case is by Section 744.

Sections 744 and 731 are in Chapter 2 of the Code, the title of which is “Limitations of Actions.” They cover, as shown, "any penalty or forfeitureand provide that they shall not cover any suit which by statute shall be brought in a shorter time. Section 1075 (providing specific penalties for the different types of trees cut) and Section 1087 (covering actions for any specific penalty given by this chapter) are a part of Chapter 3 of the Code under the heading “Trespass.”

If Section 1087 were an ordinary statute of limitation, Section 744 would apply to this entire action. It is not, however. The action of trespass to recover these specific penalties for the cutting of trees is a purely statutory creation. Section 1087 is part and parcel and a substantive part of the right to recover such penalties given by Section 1075.

In Bethlehem Steel Co. v. Payne, 183 So. 2d 912, 916 (Miss.1966), the distinction is shown:

There are a number of well recognized exceptions to the general rule that statutory limitations upon the time within which suit must be brought are procedural. The following exception to the rule is noted in Stumberg, Conflict of Laws p. 148 (3d ed. 1963):
Another exception which is frequently made in the decisions exists where a [774]*774statute which creates a right,' in the same enactment provides for the time within which suit is to be brought. In such cases a majority of the courts have taken the position that the limitation qualifies the right so that unless suit is brought within the time allowed under the foreign statute, no suit may be brought at the forum, even though the time there may be longer.

This Court had the same issue before it in Louisville & N. R. Co. v. Dixon, 168 Miss. 14, 150 So. 811 (1933), and there held:

Having determined that the period prescribed is an integral part of the right, a condition of the right to institute a suit, and is not a mere statute of limitations, the remaining question is whether our section 2314, Code 1930, can be (applied to save the case now in hand. That section provides in effect that, where any suit has been brought in time, but has been defeated for reasons other than upon the merits, a new action for the same cause may be brought within one year after the determination of the original suit. The principle upon which this question turns has been generally settled in other jurisdictions, and we find that the courts of Louisiana adhere to the same course of adjudication in regard to the particular question which prevails elsewhere.
In Matthews v. Kansas City S. Ry. Co., 10 La.App. 382, 120 So.

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Bluebook (online)
233 So. 2d 771, 1970 Miss. LEXIS 1667, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/evans-v-broadhead-miss-1970.