Fulton v. McQuirter

149 So. 700, 227 Ala. 277
CourtSupreme Court of Alabama
DecidedMay 25, 1933
StatusPublished

This text of 149 So. 700 (Fulton v. McQuirter) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fulton v. McQuirter, 149 So. 700, 227 Ala. 277 (Ala. 1933).

Opinion

KNIGHT, Justice.

It appears from the record and proceedings in this cause that William McQuirter entered into a lease contract with W. E. Fulton, by which the former leased to the latter certain premises in the city of Mobile, Ala., for a term of fifteen months, at a monthly rental of $35, payable on the 1st of each month.

The tenant having failed to pay certain of the installments of rent, McQuirter brought several suits in the inferior court of Mobile county against the said Fulton to recover the past-due installments. There were judgments against the defendant in each of the cases, and defendant appealed from the judgments to the circuit court. In two of the cases, it appears that the petitioners now before the court were sureties on the defendant’s appeal bond.

It also appears that the said Fulton instituted a suit in the circuit court of Mobile county, law side of the docket, against the said McQuirter to recover damages for certain acts done by McQuirter in breach of the lease contract, etc.

While the two suits by McQuirter against Fulton, in which the petitioners here were sureties on the appeal bonds, and the suit of Fulton v. McQuirter were pending in the circuit court, on the law side of the docket, the said McQuirter filed a motion in the court for the consolidation of the three cases upon the stated ground that the consolidation would “save confusion and m*seh worry and delay to the court clerks and others.” The court granted this motion and ordered the consolidation.

After the order of consolidation was made, it would appear from the record, the court “by consent” transferred the cases to the equity docket. Thereafter the said McQuirter filed in the circuit court, on the equity side of the docket, a bill of complaint against the said Fulton, bringing forward the lease contract, and averring the failure of the said Fulton to pay the installments of rent [278]*278due thereunder, and for the recovery of which the two designated suits had been brought, and recovery had therein in the inferior civil court of Mobile, the appeal of the cases to the circuit court by the defendant therein, and the ■ execution of appeal bonds.

In this equity case, the complainant also sought recovery for other installments of rent that had fallen due since the commencement of the suits in which appeals had been taken, and for the recovery of certain fees for services of his attorney in handling the entire matter in the inferior court, in the chancery court, and in the Supreme Court in two cases, and also the further sum of $500 for damages to the complainant’s property.

The court upon final hearing on July 29, 1932, rendered a decree adjudging that the respondent Pulton was indebted to the complainant in the sum of $388.10, which included an attorney’s fee of $100, and further decreed as follows: “It is further ordered, adjudged and decreed by the court that the bomplainant have and recover of the respondent, W. E. Pulton, and his sureties on the appeal bond brought up from the Inferior Civil Court, T. P. Keevan and W. L. Pritchett, the sum of $100.00, in the original ease No. 11639, on the law side of this court, and also the costs of the Inferior Court in said case, of $9.55, and also the costs on the law side of this court in said original case No. 11639, and their pro rata share of the costs of case No. 7776 'on the equity side of this court; and it is further ordered, adjudged and decreed by the court that the complainant have and recover of the said respondent, W. E. Pulton, and his sureties on the appeal bond, T. F., Keevan, W. L. Pritc-hett, and A. M. Tulley, in original case No. 12381, which was brought up from the Inferior Civil Court of Mobile County, Alabama, the sum of $100.00, and also the costs of the Inferior Court in said case, of $8.10, and also recover the costs in original case No. 12381 on the law side of this court, and also the pro rata share of the costs in this case on the equity side of this court, No. 7776; for which let execution issue against the respondent W. E. Pulton, and his sureties in both cases above referred to.” ■

Upon this judgment, executions were issued by the register against the defendant Pulton and his sureties on the two judgments set out above.

The petitioners, Tulley, Keevan, and Pritchett, applied to this court on December 31, 1932, for common-law certiorari to quash and annul the judgments entered against them, and also the executions issued thereon, upon the ground, inter alia, that they were not made parties to the equity suit and were given no notice of the same. Upon the filing Of the petition with this court, a writ of certiorari was ordered to be issued, requiring the record and proceedings in the case to be certified to this court for review. We have the record now before us.

In passing upon the questions presented for review, we can only consider the external validity of the judgments against the petitioners. Mere irregularities or errors correctable by appeal cannot be considered. Nashville, C. & St. L. Ry. Co. v. Boaz et al., 226 Ala. 441, 147 So. 195.

“The function of the writ of certiorari at common law extends to the question of jurisdiction of the inferior tribunal and the external validity and regularity 'of the proceedings, but not to its intrinsic correctness. Where the forms of law have been followed and jurisdiction appears, here the inquiry ends. Independent Pub. Co. v. Amer. Press Ass’n, 102 Ala. 475, 15 So. 947; Phillips et al. v. Holmes, 165 Ala. 250, 51 So. 625; Adams v. City of Troy, 1 Ala. App. 544, 56 So. 82; Dean v. State, 63 Ala. 153; Miller v. Jones, 80 Ala. 93; McCulley v. Cunningham, 96 Ala. 585, 11 So. 694 ; 5 R. C. L. 250, § 3; Ex parte Dickens, 162 Ala. 272, 50 So. 218.” Ex parte Slaughter, State Fire Marshal, 217 Ala. 515, 116 So. 684. The writ will not be employed to inquire into the correctness of the judgment rendered where the forms of the law have been followed, apd where the court had jurisdiction, and was therefore competent.

Whether the defendant Pulton, by consenting for the cases to be transferred to the equity docket, and to be there determined, without regard to whether there was any equitable right involved or not, has es-topped himself from asserting the invalidity of the judgment against him, we need not determine, as the question is not presented. But whether by his consent, as against his sureties, he had the right to consent to the transfer, and thereby to bind his sureties to any judgment there rendered, is quite another matter; and especially so, in view of the fact that the bill as filed did not present an equitable question or right.

The rights, liabilities, and obligations of the surety on an appeal bond are fixed by statute (Loc. Laws 1911, p. 277, § 13), and cannot be changed or enlarged by the principal, or by the court, beyond the terms of the obligation, construed and interpreted in the light of thé law existing at the time of its execution.

The statutes provide for an appeal from the judgment of the inferior civil court of Mobile county to the circuit court. The terms of the bond required are also prescribed by the statute. The surety in executing the bond must be held to contemplate that the cause to which he, by signing [279]*279the bond, makes himself a quasi party, will be tried in, and by, the court to which the appeal is authorized to be taken, and according to the rules and law governing in such cases.

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McCulley v. Cunningham
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Bluebook (online)
149 So. 700, 227 Ala. 277, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fulton-v-mcquirter-ala-1933.