McGarrahan v. Maxwell

28 Cal. 75
CourtCalifornia Supreme Court
DecidedApril 15, 1865
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 28 Cal. 75 (McGarrahan v. Maxwell) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
McGarrahan v. Maxwell, 28 Cal. 75 (Cal. 1865).

Opinion

By the Court,

Rhodes, J.

The complaint in this case, in addition to a cause of action in ejectment, states facts entitling the plaintiff to a provisional injunction pending the action, and a perpetual injunction to restrain the defendants from the commission of waste on the premises in controversy. The judgment in ejectment was rendered August 10, 1863, and on the same day a decree of injunction, perpetually restraining the defendants from committing waste was signed and filed in the Clerk’s office, and on the following day it was entered in the judgment book. It does not appear that a provisional injunction was ordered. In the notice of appeal, it is stated that the defendant’s appeal “from the judgment therein made and entered in said District Court, on or about the 10th day of August, A. D. 1863, in favor of said plaintiff against said defendants, and from the whole thereof, and from the order of the Court refusing a [85]*85new trial,” etc. The record filed in this Court did not contain a copy of the decree of injunction. Upoti the former hearing of the appeal, the judgment of the Court below was reversed and the cause remanded, and subsequently a rehearing was granted, upon the petitions of both parties, the plaintiff seeking an affirmance of the judgment of the Court below for the recovery of the possession of the premises; and the defendants desiring that a diminution of the record should be adjudged, and that the decree of injunction be ordered to be certified to this Court, in order that it might be reversed, together with the judgment for the recovery of the possession of the premises.

The first question is, what constitutes the whole of the judgment in the cause, from which the appeal is taken. A judgment, as defined in the Practice Act-(Sec. 144), is a “final determination of the rights of the parties in the action or proceeding.” No particular form for the judgment is prescribed in the Act, but it will be rendered by the Court in such mode that it will conform to the cause of action stated, and the proof adduced on the trial. The Court will grant the relief to which either party appears, from his allegations and proofs, to be entitled, and the relief adjudged by the Court, if it finally determines the rights of the parties respecting the matters alleged by them in their pleadings, constitutes the judgment. And it is immaterial whether the Court grants relief to each of the parties, or to one party only, or whether the relief is in its character legal or equitable, or both, for the decision of the Court, if it amounts to a final determination of the rights of the parties, touching the matters in controversy, is a judgment. The term “ decree,” although not found in the section of the Practice Act referred to, is frequently used by the Legislature and the Courts of the State, and is employed to distinguish a sentence or judgment of the Court in a suit in equity, or in respect to the equitable .branch of an action or proceeding at law, from a judgment in an action or the branch of the action determined upon legal, as contra-distinguished from equitable principles—the term being em[86]*86ployed not as a designation of something different from a judgment, but rather a judgment of a particular character. In the same manner, we use the terms “fieri facias,” “order of sale,” and “ writ of restitution,” not as indicating writs differing from an execution, but as descriptive of certain kinds of writs, all of which are included in the generic term “ execution ”— the writ issued for the enforcement of a judgment. Nor is it of any consequence whether the judgment consists of only one or of more than one entry. In ejectment, the plaintiff may be entittled to judgment for a part of the premises, and the defendant, who has stated an equitable defense, may be entitled to a judgment granting equitable relief for another part of the premises, but both determinations,'taken together, constitute a judgment. A cause of action to restrain the commission of waste may, under our system of practice, be united with a cause of action in ejectment for the recovery of the possession of the premises threatened to be injured, and the two causes of action, together with the facts pleaded by the defendant, constitute the matters in controversy between the parties, and the final determination of the rights of the parties respecting those matters, whatever form it may assume, is the judgment. The judgment in ejectment and the “decree” of injunction, in this case, constitute one judgment, and the defendants having- appealed from the whole judgment, the “ decree” is necessarily included in the appeal.

The decree was not brought up to this Court in the record filed by the defendants, and on which the appeal was first heard, and it is now insisted by the plaintiff, that as the defendants were bound to take notice of the entry of the decree, and did, in fact, know that it was entered, they are not entitled to have it brought up for review at this stage of the case because they have not used due diligence in suggesting a diminution of the record, and procuring a certiorari to have the decree returned to this Court. If the question related to an order intermediate the judgment, a bill of exceptions or a statement, or any matter that the appellant might, at his election, have presented to the appellate Court, in con[87]*87nection with his appeal from the judgment, the propriety of permitting the omitted matter to be incorporated into the record, after the appeal had once been passed on by the Court, would be very questionable; but in respect to the judgment or order appealed from, the question as to permitting an amendment incorporating it into the record if omitted therefrom in whole or in part, cannot be solved upon consideration of diligence.

The judgment, or the part of it appealed from, must of necessity be brought before the appellate Court, either in hcec •verba, or by a statement of its. substance, for it is the very foundation of the whole proceeding in the appellate Court, and its presence is as requisite to enable the Court to act in the cause, as is the complaint or answer when a Court of original jurisdiction passes upon a general demurrer to the whole pleading. Not only would it be the right of either party to have the omitted judgment or part of the judgment brought before the appellate Court, but the Court, on being apprised of the'omission, may and would require it to be supplied, if it was deemed material and necessary to a proper decision of the appeal. In the absence from the record of the judgment appealed from, the matters in controversy between the parties on appeal are not before the appellate Court.

The question is not worthy, we think, of the laborious consideration bestowed upon it by counsel. The cause of action to restrain the commission of waste consists of the allegations that the plaintiff has title to the premises, that the defendants are in possession without title and threaten to commit the alleged waste, and are unable to respond in damages for the injury. The plaintiff’s right to the equitable relief is dependent upon his title to the premises. The Court, having found that the title to the premises was in the plaintiff, and that the defendants were wrongfully in possession; and having found, as we may presume, the other facts which were necessary to entitle the plaintiff to the equitable relief,prayed for, the Court was thereupon authorized to grant the injunction. The basis of the equitable relief was the title of the plaintiff to the lands [88]

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Bluebook (online)
28 Cal. 75, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mcgarrahan-v-maxwell-cal-1865.