Kirtland v. Mississippi & Tennessee Railroad

72 Tenn. 414
CourtTennessee Supreme Court
DecidedApril 15, 1880
StatusPublished

This text of 72 Tenn. 414 (Kirtland v. Mississippi & Tennessee Railroad) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Tennessee Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kirtland v. Mississippi & Tennessee Railroad, 72 Tenn. 414 (Tenn. 1880).

Opinion

Cooper, J.,

delivered the opinion of the Court.

On the 31st of October, 1860, P. H. Cossitt sold and conveyed to the Mississippi & Tennessee Railroad Company a tract of land, reserving on the face of the deed a lien for the payment of the purchase money, evidenced by two notes — one for $5,717.37 and the other for $6,041. The first [415]*415of these notes was transferred by Cossitt to the Bank of West Tennessee. This note was renewed. several times upon the payment of the interest, the last renewal bearing date May 6th, 1862, at four months, with E. M. White and. O. E. Vance as accommodation endorsers. The bank transferred this note. to the complainant, Isaac B. Kirtland. He brought suit at law against the railroad company and the endorsers, and, after-wards, on the 17th of April, 1866, filed the original bill in this cause against the same parties, to enforce the lien reserved on the face of the deed for the payment of the purchase money. The ■plaintiff afterwards dismissed his suit at law as to the railroad company, and his suit in equity as to the endorsers, White and Vance.

On the 28rd of April, 1868, Kirtland recovered judgment at law against the endorsers for the full amount then due upon the note.

On the 10th of March, 1868, a decree was rendered in this suit in favor of Kirtland against the railroad company for the amount due upon the note, but the Chancellor held that the recovery was no lien on the land, and that it might be paid in the notes of the Bank of West Tennessee. The complainant appealed to this Court, and the latter part of the decree was reversed, and a decree rendered declaring that the recovery was a lien upon the land, and was not required to be paid in the notes of the Bank of West Tennessee. The land was ordered to be sold in satisfac[416]*416tion. of the decree, if the amount was not paid by the company within a given time. Afterwards, at the same term, upon an affidavit of the defendants’ • counsel that the judgment at law had been paid, under an order of that Court, in the notes of the Bank of West Tennessee, the Court ordered the cause to be remanded to the Chancery Court for the execution of the decree.

During the same term at which the judgment at law had been rendered in favor of Kirtland against White and Yance, on the 20th of May, 1868, the defendants came into court, tendered and paid into court the amount of the judgment, with the interest which had accrued thereon, in the bills of the Bank of West Tennessee, and moved the Court for a rule upon the plaintiff requiring him to accept the same in satisfaction of the judgment. The rule was granted, upon consideration whereof, after argument on both sides, the plaintiff was ordered to accept the sum so tendered in full satisfaction of the judgment, and the Clerk was directed forthwith to pay the same to the plaintiff, taking his receipt therefor.

The Clerk paid the money to the plaintiff, and entered satisfaction of the judgment, on the same day, May 20th, 1868.

The plaintiff excepted to the orders of the Court, but took no appeal.

The notes of the Bank of West Tennessee were then worth in the market about thirty cents in the dollar.

[417]*417After this cause was remanded to the Chancery Court, on the 12th of February, 1875, the parties entered into an agreed statement embodying the foregoing facts.

The plaintiff, while agreeing to the facts, added: “ But the plaintiff insists that the Court cannot take cognizance of them, and objects to their being considered or taken notice of in any form or for any purpose whatever.” He further insists that he was entitled to' the immediate execution of the decree of the Court under the procedendo ^awarded as aforesaid.

On the 5th of March, 1875, the cause was heard upon the motion of the plaintiff to have the decree executed, and upon the agreed statement of facts, upon consideration whereof, the Chancellor was of opinion that the decree had been fully paid .and satisfied. The motion was disallowed with costs, and the plaintiff appealed.

The judgment recovered by the plaintiff at law, on the note in controversy, against the accommodation endorsers, was obtained after the rendition of the decree in equity against the railroad company, and the subsequent proceeding of the 20th of May, 1868, touching the tender and payment of the notes of the Bank of West Tennessee, were had while the equity cause was in this Court by appeal. The object of applying for a remand of the cause to the Cnancery Court after the rendi[418]*418tion of the decree in this court was, doubtless, to test the question whether the payment by the endorsers and acceptance . by the plaintiffs of the notes of the Bank of West Tennessee, was a satisfaction of the plaintiff’s entire demand. No doubt the question might have been tested immediately after the notes were paid out to the plaintiff, by a cross-bill in this, cause, bringing the new facts before the court, and enjoining further proceedings under the appeal to this court until the rights of the parties could be determined upon the new matter: Morrison v. Searight, 4 Bax., 479. But it is equally clear that this new matter, which could not be used directly in the Supreme Court, which had occurred after the appeal, and which, if a defense at all, was a defense to the enforcement of the judgment or decree of the Supreme Court, might be brought forward by an original bill in the nature of a cross-bill, or, by leave of the Court, by cross-bill' proper: Roberts v. Peavy, 9 Foster, 372; Montgomery v. Olwill, 1 Tenn. Ch., 169. This is the settled rule in the case of the defense of a discharge in bankruptcy pending an appeal in this court: Dick v. Powell, 2 Swan, 632; Anderson v. Reaves, 1 Tenn. Leg. Rep., 129; Eberhardt v. Wood, 2 Tenn. Ch., 490; Wolf v. Stix, 96 U. S., 543. In such a ease, where the party is only resisting a demand which he has been constantly opposing, the remedy is open whenever the demand is sought to be enforced: Lewis v. Brooks, 6 Yer., 167.

[419]*419The voluntary act of the plaintiff in joining the defendant in making an agreed statement of facts for the consideration of the Court, upon the point of controversy between' them, cannot be considered otherwise than as a waiver of formal pleadings, and a consent to have the matter determined upon its merits.

The formal protest of the plaintiff, embodied in the statement, cannot mean that the rights of the parties in the matter shall not be determined at all, for that would be inconsistent with the act of joining in the agreed statement. What the plaintiff intended thereby was to claim that, no matter whether the proceedings were formal or informal, his rights acquired by the decree could not be prejudiced by the facts agreed to. In other words, what is said is equivalent to a demurrer to a bill, or cross-bill, by defendant, setting out the facts as embodied in the agreed statement, and praying that the decree be declared satisfied. Undoubtedly, the plaintiff is entitled to have his rights declared as upon such a formal bill and demurrer thereto. He is not to be prejudiced by the form in which the matter of controversy is presented.

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Related

Wolf v. Stix
96 U.S. 541 (Supreme Court, 1878)

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Bluebook (online)
72 Tenn. 414, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kirtland-v-mississippi-tennessee-railroad-tenn-1880.