Hayes v. Nourse

25 Abb. N. Cas. 95
CourtNew York Court of Appeals
DecidedJanuary 15, 1890
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 25 Abb. N. Cas. 95 (Hayes v. Nourse) 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
Hayes v. Nourse, 25 Abb. N. Cas. 95 (N.Y. 1890).

Opinion

Daly, J.

The motion for restitution should be made at the general term, this action having been tried in this court. The Code (§ 1323) directs that where a final judgment is reversed upon appeal, the appellate court or the general term of the same court (i. e., the court where the action is tried) may compel restitution. This enactment confines the exer[97]*97cise of the powers to the tribunals expressly mentioned, and excludes all others, among them the special term of the court. The former Code (§§ 330, 369) conferred the power upon the appellate court, but it was exercised by the trial court by virtue of its inherent common law powers; and the motion to compel restitution was heard at the special term in the first instance. The new Code recognizes this jurisdiction in the trial court, but confines its exercise to the general term, to which, in the first instance, the application must now be made.

The motion is denied, without costs, without prejudice to renew at the general term.

Defendant thereafter renewed the motion at the general term.

George W. Wickersham for the motion. The court of appeals having disposed of all the questions in the action absolutely in favor of the defendant, the fact that a new trial has been.ordered will not prevent restitution of amounts, paid under the erroneous judgments, it being clear that the-plaintiff cannot succeed on a new trial (Murray v. BerdelL 98 N. Y. 480).

W. B. Putney, for plaintiff, opposed.

Larremore, Ch. J.

This is a motion for restitution under section 1323 of the Code. The plaintiff purchased certain real estate formerly belonging to defendant’s assignors, at the assignee’s auction sale, and under the terms of sale paid ten per cent, of the amount of her bid to bind the bargain. She subsequently rejected the title and brought the present action to recover the amount of her deposit. She obtained a judgment in her favor at special and general terms of this court. The defendant thereupon, for reasons which seem perfectly proper, and of which the court of last resort has approved (107 N. Y. 577), paid the amount of said judgments and satisfied the same. Upon appeal to the court of [98]*98appeals the said judgments in plaintiff’s favor were reversed, and defendant now demands restitution of the amount so paid.

The phraseology of section 1323 of the Code makes the right to a restitution discretionary with the court in all cases. Counsel for defendant cites adjudications in which the property in dispute had originally belonged to the defendant. Such a case was Costar v. Peters (4 Abb. Pr. N. S. 53), which was an action for ejectment, and in which the plaintiff by execution had been placed in possession of the premises sued for. Similar in effect was Murray v. Berdell (98 N. Y. 480), in which the property of the defendant had been sold under execution to discharge a debt alleged to be due the plaintiff.

We do not consider these cases analogous in principle to the case at bar, because here the money deposited was originally plaintiff’s money, and therefore does not stand for property of which in the first instance defendant had been deprived. If there appeared any feasible chance of plaintiff’s obtaining a different result on the new trial which the court of appeals has ordered, we should be inclined to deny the present motion. Defendant elected to satisfy the judgments, which was equivalent to returning to plaintiff her deposit, to be 'kept in her custody pendente Ute. If, therefore, there remained any actual uncertainty as to the ultimate right to such money, it would be more equitable not to interfere with its present custody, but to hold defendant to his election until final judgment and final affirmance on appeal. But inspection of the pleadings shows that the court of appeals has passed upon and authoritively decided the only question raised. The new objection which counsel for plaintiff seeks to interject upon this motion could not be urged upon a new trial without an amendment of the complaint amounting to a substantial change of base. We are not called upon here to say whether a motion for such amendment could under any circumstances prevail, and certainly we are not when the present application is addressed to our [99]*99discretion, bound to consider what plaintiff’s possible status might be if a motion for a radical amendment had been made and granted. Upon the case as it stands the court of last resort has finally determined in defendant’s favor the ■only issue involved, and therefore, in the exercise of our ■discretion, it is just that the order of restitution should be made.

The motion should be granted.

Daly and Van Hoesen, JJ., concurred.

Defendant noticed for settlement an order under this ■decision, in the following terms, after the recitals :

It is ordered, that Ellen T. Hayes, the plaintiff above named, make restitution and pay to Charles J. Nourse, Jr., the defendant above named, the sum of $3,652.25, being the amount paid by said defendant to said plaintiff upon the ;said reversed judgments, together with interest thereon from the 15th day of June, 1887, the date of such payment, and together with* $10 costs of this motion, and that judgment ■be entered and docketed in favor of the defendant and against the plaintiff for the sctid sum, and that the defendant have execution therefor.

Judge Van Hoesen, before whom the order was settled, ■struck out the words and that judgment be entered and docketed in favor of the defendant and against the plaintiff for the said sum,” and defendant thereupon moved for a resettlement of the order, by inserting the words stricken out.

George W. Wickersham, for the motion. The decision ■of the court of appeals upon appeal from a judgment is a judgment (Code of Civil Procedure, §§ 1317, 1318). If the amount lost by the erroneous judgment appears on the record, the judgment of reversal includes a judgment of restitution. At common law, where such fact did not appear •on the record, a judgment of restitution was awarded upon a writ of scire facias (Graham's Practice, 963; Safford [100]*100v. Stevens, 2 Wend. 165). And the same result follows under the modern practice by motion (Baylies on New Trials and Appeal, 194; O’Gara v. Kearney, 77 N. Y. 423). Whether made in the appellate court or in the court of original jurisdiction, the motion has precisely the same-effect, and is in the nature of an amendment to the remittitur ; and the direction for restitution is a judgment and: not an order (Sheridan v. Man, 5 How. Pr. 201; Safford v. Stevens, 2 Wend. 164; Kennedy v. O’Brien, 2 E. D. Smith, 41). The distinction is important, as, if the court merely orders restitution, execution can only issue againsfr the personal property of the respondent (Code Civ. Pro. § 779).

William B. Putney, for plaintiff, opposed.

Van Hoesen, J.

The application for restitution ought,, as a matter of safety, to have been made to the court of appeals. There is no doubt at all that that court could have-ordered restitution, and inserted a direction for restitution in its judgment of reversal.

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Bluebook (online)
25 Abb. N. Cas. 95, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hayes-v-nourse-ny-1890.