Offerman & Western Railroad v. Waycross Air-Line Railroad

37 S.E. 871, 112 Ga. 610, 1901 Ga. LEXIS 21
Supreme Court of Georgia·Decided January 25, 1901·Published·Cited by 9 cases

Opinion

Fish, J.

The Waycross Air-Line Railroad Company, a corporation having its principal office in Ware county, petitioned the superior court of Pierce county to enjoin the Offerman and Western Railroad Company, a corporation with its principal office in the last-named county, from crossing the tracks of the former company at Nicholls, Pierce county. The injunction, upon the hearing, being refused by the judge, the Waycross Air-Line Railroad Company sued out a writ of error to this court, and, to obtain a restraining . order preserving the status until the judgment denying the injunc[611] tion could be reviewed, gave a bond with sureties, who all lived in Ware county, conditioned to pay to the Offerman and Western Railroad Company all damages resulting from the delay occasioned by taking the case up, in the event the judgment of the superior court should be affirmed. After an affirmance here of such judgment and, the filing of the remittitur in the court below, the Offerman and Western Railroad Company, at the next term of the lower court, moved to enter up a judgment on the bond against the principal and sureties thereon, for the amount of damages it claimed to have sustained by reason of the delay caused by the case having been brought to this court. To this motion the Waycross Air-line Railroad Com-pany and the sureties on the bond demurred, on the grounds: (1) that they were all residents of Ware county, and therefore the superior court of Pierce comity had no jurisdiction to entertain the motion against them; (2) that the court had no jurisdiction or authority to enter up judgment on the bond for damages, the only remedy for the movant being a separate action upon the bond; (3) that the damages sought to be recovered were too remote and speculative. The demurrer was sustained and the motion dismissed, mainly, as the order recites, upon the ground that Pierce superior court had no jurisdiction of the suit on the bond. To this judgment the Offerman and Western Railroad Company filed its bill of exceptions, and we are now to decide whether or not such ruling was erroneous. The bond in this case is of a nature exactly similar to the ordinary bond which the plaintiff in an injunction suit is usually re-, quired to give as a condition precedent to obtaining an interlocutory injunction, and which'is conditioned for the payment to the defendant of all damages that may accrue to him in the event of the injunction being improperly issued; and, therefore, authorities bearing on the question whether a court of equity, upon the dissolution of an injunction, has power to assess damages, in the original cause, for the defendant against the plaintiff and his sureties, or must remit the defendant to his separate action on the bond, are directly in point.

Mr. High in Ms excellent work on Injunctions (2d vol.), § 1657, says: “ There has been much conflict of authority whether, M the absence of express legislation, a court of eqMty powers might; upon dissolvmg an Mjunction, ascertain by reference, or otherwise, the amount of damages sustamed by the injunction, and decree payment of such amount without a new suit for that purpose. But,. [612] while courts of much respectability have insisted upon the exercise of such a jurisdiction, treating it as a cumulative remedy entirely independent of and distinct from any action which might be brought upon the bond, the undoubted weight both of authority and principle is against the exercise of such a jurisdiction. It is certain that no warrant can be found for its exercise in the former practice of the English High Court of Chancery, and however desirable and convenient such procedure may be and undoubtedly is in practice, the doctrine is too firmly fixed to admit of controversy that, in the absence of positive legislation, a court of equity has no power to afford a remedy upon the bond in the injunction suit, such a power being neither an incident to the general powers of courts of equity nor consistent with the principles of equity jurisdiction. In the absence, therefore, of legislative authority to the contrary, a court of equity will not, upon dissolving an injunction, enforce payment of damages in the original cause, but will remit the parties aggrieved to their action upon the bond.” See cases cited by the author under such section, page 1241, n. 1. In 16 American & English Enc. Law (2d ed.), 459, it is said: "As regards the assessment and award of damages on the dissolution of an injunction, the decisions are not entirely uniform. According to the weight of authority, the rights and liabilities of the parties under the bond are cognizable only in courts of law. The principal obligor and his sureties are entitled to have these rights determined under and according to the rules of practice of courts of law, and, aside from express statutory authorization, a court of equity, on dissolving the injunction, can not assess and award damages except by consent of the obligors expressed in the bond, or in some other appropriate mode.” As somewhat in point it was said in Walker v. Walker, 42 Ga. 141: “ In cases of bonds quia timet, while the ultimate liability of such securities may be fixed as to the amount by the judgment against their principal, and the spirit of our law is to dismember legal rights from unnecessary formalities and multiplicity of suits, still in cases like the present it requires a legislative act to authorize the courts to apply the analogies arising under the grants of power conferred in cases of securities under other statutes, against securities on appeal, attachment, garnishment, certiorari, wilts of error, and claim.”

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Offerman & Western Railroad v. Waycross Air-Line Railroad, 37 S.E. 871, 112 Ga. 610, 1901 Ga. LEXIS 21 (Ga. 1901).

37 S.E. 871 (Offerman & Western Railroad v. Waycross Air-Line Railroad) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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