Hagerman v. Moran

75 F. 97, 21 C.C.A. 242, 1896 U.S. App. LEXIS 2015
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedJune 19, 1896
DocketNo. 270
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 75 F. 97 (Hagerman v. Moran) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hagerman v. Moran, 75 F. 97, 21 C.C.A. 242, 1896 U.S. App. LEXIS 2015 (9th Cir. 1896).

Opinion

GILBERT, Circuit Judge.

On the 6th day of September, 1892, a decree was entered in the court below in favor of J. C. Hagerman, administrator of the estate of Jerry Schooling, deceased, and John Wright, administrator of the estate of James Webster, deceased, and A. A. Watkins, against the appellees, Charles Moran and others, for separate sums of money amounting in the aggregate to $33,419.57, principal, together with interest thereon in the sum of $18,239.87; making the total of principal and interest $51,659.44. There was no provision expressed in the decree as entered providing for payment of interest on said sums from and after the date of the decree. Upon that subject the decree was silent. On the 3d day of November, 1892, Charles Moran and others, the appellees herein, took an appeal from said decree to the supreme court of the United States, and gave a supersedeas bond for stay of execution thereon, and on the same day took an appeal from said decree to this court, and gave a bond for costs on the appeal. The appeal to the supreme court was dismissed on the 22d day of January, 1894, for want of jurisdiction. 14 Sup. Ct. 354. The appeal to this court was heard upon its merits, and on the 23d day of October, 1894, the decree of the lower court was affirmed, with costs to the appellees. Moran v. Hagerman, 12 C. O. A. 239, 64 Fed. 499. After the mandate from this court was entered in the court below, Charles Moran et al., the appellees herein, on March 23, 1895, paid the full amount of the principal and interest of the decree as originally entered in the sum of $51,659.44, and took from the appellants a receipt for that amount, in which it was acknowledged that the sum so paid was in full payment of the decree, principal and costs, but did not include interest thereon from its date, and that the question whether said decree or any portion thereof should bear interest was contested between the parties, and reseiwed for the decision of the circuit court. On May 24, 1895, for the purpose of testing that question, the clerk issued and delivered to the marshal executions for the interest due on the principal sums on behalf of the parties interested therein, aggregating $5,952.02. The appellees thereupon moved the court to quash the executions upon the ground that they did not follow the decree, and that such interest was not recoverable thereon. . After a hearing upon said motion, the court below made an order quashing the writs, and from that order the appellants appeal to this court, presenting the sole question whether or not they are entitled to interest upon the decree so entered in their favor on the 6th day of September, 1892.

Section 966 of the Revised Statutes provides as follows:

“Sec. 966. Interest shall be allowed on all judgments in civil causes recovered in a circuit or district court, and may be levied by the marshal under [99]*99process of execution issued thereon in all cases where, by the law of the state In which such court is held, interest may be levied under process of execution on judgments recovered in the courts of such state; and it shall be calculated from the date of the judgment at such rate as is allowed by law on judgments recovered in the courts of such state.”

The law of Nevada, as expressed in section 4 of the territorial act in relation to interest, provides that where there is no expressed contract in writing fixing a different rate, interest shall be allowed at 10 per cent, per annum on judgments for certain classes of liability, among which is specified judgments “for money received to the use of another.” The supreme court of Nevada, in a series of decisions, has interpreted Ural: provision of the law of the state to mean that no execution shall issue for interest upon a judgment, unless the judgment so provides in express terms. The rule is thus expressed:

“It must he regarded, therefore, as the settled doctrine of this court that no execution can issue for interest upon a judgment which fails to specify upon what portion thereof and at what rate interest, is collectible.” Solen v. Railroad Co., 15 Nev. 313.

It is urged that this construction, being the settled law of Nevada, controls the decision of the question now before the court under the provisions of section 966 of the Revised Statutes above quoted. As we construe that section, it provides for the payment of interest upon judgments at law in the circuit and district courts, and does not refer to decrees in equity. This is not only apparent from the language of the clause, which distinctly specifies judgments and refers to the execution thereon and its levy by the marshal, but the supreme court, in Perkins v. Fourniquet, 14 How. 328, has said that the act of 1842, which was subsequently embodied in section 966, does not embrace cases in equity, but is confined in plain terms to judgments at law in the circuit: and district courts. In the course of the opinion the court said of that statute:

“It places the judgments of those courts in respect to interest upon the same footing with the judgments of tiic state courts. And where, by the law of the state, the judgment of a court carries a. certain interest until paid, the former rule and the same rate of interest is to be allowed in the circuit and district courts of the United States, and the marshal is directed to levy It on process of execution, wherever it can he so levied on a judgment in the state court. In such cases the judgment bears interest by force of the law, although upon the face of it it may not purport to carry interest.”

The supreme court, however, by the sixty-second rule, adopted in 1851, made provision that both judgments at common law and decrees in chancery upon affirmance in that court carry interest until paid, the interest to be calculated according to the rate of interest allowed in the state in which the judgment or decree of the court below was given. In Hemmenway v. Fisher, 20 How. 255-259, the court, referring to rule 62, said:

'“The object in changing the rule in this respect was to place the suitors in the courts of the United States upon the same footing with the suitors in the state courts in like cases; for the interest allowed in the several states differs, and in many of them it is higher than six per cent., and in most, if not all of them, a judgment or decree in a court of the state carries interest until it is paid.”

[100]*100The'thirtieth, fule of this court provides as follows:

“(1) In cases where a writ of error is prosecuted in this court, and the judgment of the inferior court is affirmed, the interest shall' be calculated and lévied from the date of the judgment below until the same is paid, at the same rate that similar judgments bear interest in the courts of the state or territory where such judgment was rendered.
“(2) In all cases where a writ of error shall delay the proceedings on the ■judgment of the inferior court, and shall appear to have been sued out merely for delay, damages at a rate not exceeding ten per cent., in addition to interest, shall be awarded upon the amount of the judgment.
“(3) The same rule shall be applied to decrees for the payment of money in cases in equity, unless otherwise ordered by this court
“(4) In cases in admiralty, damages and interest may be allowed if specially directed by the court.”

11 C. C. A. cxii., 47 Fed.' xiii.

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Bluebook (online)
75 F. 97, 21 C.C.A. 242, 1896 U.S. App. LEXIS 2015, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hagerman-v-moran-ca9-1896.