Loveland v. Davenport

201 S.W.2d 518, 239 Mo. App. 818, 1947 Mo. App. LEXIS 344
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedApril 4, 1947
StatusPublished

This text of 201 S.W.2d 518 (Loveland v. Davenport) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Loveland v. Davenport, 201 S.W.2d 518, 239 Mo. App. 818, 1947 Mo. App. LEXIS 344 (Mo. Ct. App. 1947).

Opinion

*820 FULBRIGHT, P. J.

This suit is based upon a motion to assess damages on an injunction bond. On July 20, 1943, appellants filed a petition in the Circuit Court of Wright County, against respondents in which appellants sought to have a certain judgment establishing a public road through their premises “cancelled and for naught held and a permanent injunction be issued . . . restraining the trespass and taking -of their lands and that in the meantime a temporary injunction be issued against these defendants (respondents') . . . restraining them and each of them . . . from passing over or in any way interfering with the possession and quiet enjoyment of certain lands alleged to be owned by plaintiffs (appellants) over which a public road had been established. ’ ’ Upon a hearing the court issued its temporary writ of injunction enjoining the defendants and each of them, their servants and agents from going upon, or in-any way interfering with the peaceable and quiet enjoyment of the lands in question until the further order of this court, upon the appellants filing with the clerk a bond in the sum of $1,000. Appellants duly entered into an injunction bond in which C. B. Loveland and Mrs. Franc Marie Loveland signed as principals, and A. L. Eichholz, A. C. Eichholz and Joe Major signed'as sureties. Respondent, Bill Davenport, was duly served with said writ of' injunction and filed his plea in abatement thereto, along with the other defendants in the injunction suit. These pleas were overruled on March 3, 1944, and respondent, Bill Davenport, and others, filed their demurrer to said petition on March 3, 1944, which was overruled. Whereupon respondents filed their motion to dissolve temporary injunction and their answer on the same date. Trial of the cause was had on March 3, 1944, and the court found the issues in favor of the respondents and against appellants, dissolving the temporary injunction and dismissing the cause, from which judgment appellants appealed to this court. The judgment of the Wright County Circuit Court was affirmed in this court, the case being reported in 188 S. W. (2d) 850.

Respondent, Bill Davenport, duly filed motion for assessment of damages on May 25, 1944, and on November 16, 1945, appellants filed their answer. The court proceeded to hear the issues and found for motionor, Bill Davenport and against appellants and assessed the damages of motionor at the sum of $601.13, which judgment was duly entered against the previously named appellants. Said appellants subsequently filed their notice of appeal and the cause was duly appealed to this court.

*821 Movant, in his Motion for Assessment of Damages, alleges in substance, among other things, the filing of a petition and application, for injunction, the granting of a temporary writ of injunction and the filing injunction bond, the amount of the various items of damages sustained as a direct result of the issuance of the temporary writ of injunction and asks for a judgment of $1,000, the full amount of the injunction bond,

For answer to the motion plaintiffs admit the issuance of the injunction and execution of the injunction bond and deny each and every other allegation therein contained. They then deny that Movant, Bill Davenport had any interest in the West Half of the Northeast Quarter of Section 27, Township 27, Range 19, Christian County, Missouri. They deny that the road described in Movant’s motion is a public road or was a public road during the life of the temporary injunction, or at any time mentioned in the motion. They allege that the order of the County Court of Christian County establishing said public road was void; that the court was without jurisdiction to render the judgment; that the Circuit Court of Christian County, to which an appeal was taken and the Circuit Court of Wright County, to which it was sent on change of venue, had no jurisdiction of said lands and that the judgment of said court is void; that Bill Davenport was a trespassor,-had no vested rights and the temporary injunction took no rights away from said movant. Appellants complain that movant did not sufficiently itemize the amounts of damages claimed and that the bond sued upon is one of joint obligation to all the 'obligees and that one obligee cannot proceed alone in this action against these defendants (-respondents) and asks that movant’s motion be dismissed.

Movant filed a motion to strike part of plaintiffs’ (appellants’) answer, which does not seem to have been ruled on by the court but treated as a reply. It alleges in substance that all matters relative to the action of the County Court of Christian County and the Circuit Court of Wright County are res judicata or res adjudicata and have been finally adjudicated on the trial of this case on its merits and in this court, and are concluded by the judgment and decree of this court entered on April 18, 1944, which judgment and decree were thereafter affirmed by the Springfield Court of Appeals.

By agreement of the parties a jury was waived and the cause tried before the court. All files in the original injunction suit were placed in the record as evidence by stipulation entered into between the parties. Respondent, Bill Davenport, introduced in evidence a written agreement showing the employment of Joe C. Crain as his attorney in procuring the dissolution of the temporary injunction and expenses incidental to having the injunction dissolved and introduced proof of the reasonableness of such fee. He also made proof of certain alleged items of damages directly resulting from the issuance *822 of the temporary injunction and his inability to keep a tenant on his land while the temporary order was in force since there was no way of egress and ingress to his lands. The items of damages, in the aggregate exceeded $1,000.

Appellants introduced in evidence the judgment of the Circuit Court of Wright County, rendered on the 5th day of June, 1942, ordering the opening of the public road. They also offered, and the court admitted, the files in said suit. Thereafter the trial court rendered judgment for respondent, Bill Davenport, assessing his damages at $601.13.

Appellants’ Assignment of Errors is as follows:

(1) The Court erred in admitting respondents’ Exhibit B over the objection of the appellants.

(2) The Court erred in rendering judgment in favor of the respondent and in assessing his damages in the sum of $601.13.

(3) The Court erred in finding from the evidence that respondent, Bill Davenport, sustained any damages by reason of the temporary injunction and in finding that the respondent had any vested right or interest in the real estate which he was enjoined from constructing a road and the use of the same.

The first assignment is without merit. If error, appellants are in no position to1 complain since they offered, and the trial admitted, the files in the original cause establishing the public road and in which the identical exhibit was contained.

Assignments numbered Two and Three will be considered together. Appellants contend that the judgment of the Wright County.

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Bluebook (online)
201 S.W.2d 518, 239 Mo. App. 818, 1947 Mo. App. LEXIS 344, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/loveland-v-davenport-moctapp-1947.