Fellows v. Heermans

13 Abb. Pr. 1
CourtNew York Court of Appeals
DecidedDecember 15, 1870
StatusPublished

This text of 13 Abb. Pr. 1 (Fellows v. Heermans) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fellows v. Heermans, 13 Abb. Pr. 1 (N.Y. 1870).

Opinion

Allen, J.

It is conceded that the only question before this court is as to the power of the court below to grant the injunction and appoint the receiver. If the power existed, the discretion of the court in its exercise is not the subject of review here.

The action was brought to revoke and avoid a trust created by the plaintiff upon several grounds, to remove the trustee and to restore the trust estate to the plaintiff, the original owner of the property, and the principal beneficiary under the trust deed.

The judgment of the court at special term was adverse to the plaintiff; the trust was adjudged valid, and the trustee was declared not to have abused or neglected the duties of his office, or to be incapacitated, or unfit to execute the trust.

It was determined and adjudged that the plaintiff was not entitled to the relief demanded, or any part thereof, and that the defendant was entitled to a decree dismissing the complaint, declaring the trust deed and the trusts valid and irrevocable, and restoring him to all the trust property: and the injunction order theretofore granted was vacated.

After judgment had been perfected, and an appeal [4]*4taken to the general term, the court at special term, upon motion, granted an order giving plaintiff time to make and serve a case, &c., and restraining the defendant from interfering with, or disposing of the trust estate and property, and appointing a receiver of the trust property and effects, with power, among other things, to pay to the plaintiff all moneys that should come to his hands as such receiver, reserving five per cent, and his expenses.

The order regarded the plaintiff as legally entitled to receive the moneys discharged from the trust, the receiver being authorized to retain only his expenses, and a sum equivalent to his probable commissions. This order was affirmed at general term, and an appeal has been taken to this court.

1. The Code, which gives the right of appeal, and regulates the proceedings and prescribes the cases in, and conditions upon which an appeal from a judgment at special term to the general term of the same court shall operate as a stay of proceedings upon the judgment appealed from, does not authorize this proceeding and intervention in behalf of the appellant.

The plaintiff was entitled to arrest the proceedings of the defendant upon the judgment, and stay him from enforcing the same, by complying with the requirements of the statute (Code, §§ 348, 335, 336 and 337). All the rights which the plaintiff has, as an appellant in the action, are given to him by statute, and the relief to which he is entitled, as such appellant, is simply a stay of proceedings for an execution of the judgment pending the appeal. The appeal and all its incidents, including the power conferred upon the court to arrest the execution of the judgment, are creations of the statute, and being given in express terms, necessarily exclude all other proceedings and remedies affecting the rights of the parties.

The power to grant an injunction restraining the re[5]*5spondent in the appeal, in respect of the subject matter of the litigation, and appoint a receiver to take from him the possession and right of possession of property, is not conferred upon the court by the statutes regulating appeals, in which the legislature intended, doubtless, to make every regulation and confer every power which was deemed essential to secure the rights of parties, and proper to be conferred. The order was not made, and does not profess to have been made, pursuant to section 348 of the Code, to stay the proceedings upon the judgment.

2. In a single case upon an appeal from a judgment, property, the subject of the litigation, may be placed in the custody of “such officer, or receiver, as the court shall appoint," viz: where the judgment appealed from, directs the assignment or delivery of documents or personal property, and if the appellant desires execution of the judgment to be stayed, and elects to bring the document or property into court, rather than give the security required, as an alternative of the stay (Code, § 336).

The order appealed from is not within this enactment.

The judgment does not require the delivery of documents or personal property, and the receivership extends to real as well as personal property, and is not of property in the custody of the plaintiff and appellant from the judgment.

There was no power in the court to grant the order complained of at the instance of the plaintiff as an appellant, and in his aid, to give effect to his appeal.

3. The appointment of a receiver as a provisional remedy, that is, pendente lite, is regulated by statute (Code, § 244).

Whatever may be the general jurisdiction of the courts, whether of equity or common law, it must be exercised under the forms and by means of the process [6]*6given by statute. The constitution simply confers upon the supreme court, “general jurisdiction in law and equity” (Const., Art. 6, § 6).

The judiciary act of 1847 declared that the supreme court should exercise the same jurisdiction as was then possessed by the supreme court and court of chancery, and that all laws relating to the then existing supreme court and court of chancery, and the jurisdiction, powers and duties of- said courts, the proceedings therein and the officers thereof, their powers and duties should be applicable to the supreme court, organized by that act, the powers and duties thereof and the proceedings therein, so far as the same could be applied, and were consistent with the constitution and the provisions of the act (Laws of 1847, ch. 280, § 16). The powers and jurisdiction of the supreme court, as a court of equity, except as modified by statute, are co-extensive with the powers and jurisdiction of the court of chancery in England (2 Rev. Stat., 173, § 36). But the rules of practice and forms of procedure have been, from time to time, greatly modified and changed by statute, and, in some instances, an alteration of the forms of procedure have in a measure affected the rights of suitors.

This is true in respect of appeals, as well as other matters connected with the practice and powers of the court.

The process for bringing parties into court and to enforce remedies have been greatly changed, and these, with all the forms of procedure, may and are changed from time to time, without at all affecting the general equitable jurisdiction and powers of the court.

The writ of ne exeat was a process well known, and frequently resorted to in the court of chancery and in the supreme court, prior to the enactment of the Code, but is regarded as abolished, because it is not among the “provisional remedies” given by that act.

Prior to 1852, the Code specified five cases in which [7]*7a receiver might be appointed, and then added, “The court, may grant the other provisional remedies now existing, according to the present practice, except as otherwise provided by this act” (Code, as amended in 1851, § 244).

Before 1851, the authority was general (Code of 1849, § 244), and under these provisions, there was some plausibility in the assertion that the writ of ne exeat, as a provisional remedy, was retained by the Code. But in 1852, the clause above quoted was stricken out, and the provision essentially modified.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
13 Abb. Pr. 1, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fellows-v-heermans-ny-1870.