Porter v. Small

120 P. 393, 62 Or. 574, 1912 Ore. LEXIS 178
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 23, 1912
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 120 P. 393 (Porter v. Small) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Porter v. Small, 120 P. 393, 62 Or. 574, 1912 Ore. LEXIS 178 (Or. 1912).

Opinions

Mr. Justice McBride

delivered the opinion of the court.

1. The foregoing is not a full statement of the issues presented by the complaint, but is sufficient to indicate the points involved in the decision of the demurrer. Briefly stated, the controversy is this: The circuit court, by the decree in Hough v. Porter, adjudged defendant, Small, to be entitled to 650 inches of the waters of Silver Creek. Acting in pursuance of such decree, Small took about that amount, or so much of it as he wanted, to the detriment of plaintiffs’ lands and crops, until the modification of the original decree, which gave [578]*578him only 40 inches. If the modification of the decree by this court restores all parties to their original status, and attaches to all acts done in pursuance of it the same wrongful character which they would have possessed, had no such decree been rendered, then defendant is a trespasser ab invito, and the demurrer was not well taken. If, on the other hand, the decree of the circuit court was valid until reversed, and the defendant had a legal right to rely upon the correctness of it, his act .in pursuance of it, if then lawful, will not become a tort by reason of a modification of the decree by an appellate court. The question is one of great difficulty, not heretofore passed upon by this court, and one upon which there is an astonishing scarcity of precedent in the decisions of other jurisdictions. The text-writers seem to be as much at sea upon the proposition as the courts. Thus, Freeman, Judgments (3 ed.) Sec. 481, states the general rule as follows:

“The reversal of a judgment by any competent authority restores the parties litigant to the same condition in which they were prior to its rendition. The judgment reversed becomes mere waste paper; and the parties to it are allowed to proceed in the court below to obtain a ‘final determination of their rights’ in the same manner, and to the same extent as if their cause had never been heard or decided by any court.”

Taken by itself, this would seem to settle the whole matter in favor of plaintiffs’ contention, but in the succeeding section the following language is used:

“Upon the reversal of the judgment against him, the appellant is entitled to the restitution, from the respondent, of all the advantages acquired by the latter by virtue of the erroneous judgment. The successful appellant is entitled to a restitution of everything still in possession of his adversary, in specie; not the value, but the thing. If money has been collected by the plaintiff in the judgment, under execuf.cn, an action lies against him to [579]*579recover it back. * * But a subsisting judgment, though afterwards reversed, is a sufficient justification for all acts done by plaintiff in enforcing it, prior to the reversal. Thus, if the defendant be taken in execution, the subsequent reversal of the judgment will not render the plaintiff liable to an action for false imprisonment. For the act of imprisonment, where directed by the plaintiff, was sanctioned by a then valid judgment. But the plaintiff on the reversal is liable to an action to recover the damages occasioned by a sale of the defendant’s property made under the judgment prior to its reversal. Where the plaintiff has purchased the property, and still has it in his possession, the defendant may, at his election, affirm the sale and have his action for damages.”

In Williams v. Simmons, 22 Ala. 425, which was an action in assumpsit to recover money collected from an administrator’s surety, by execution upon a decree which was afterwards reversed, the court say: “A judgment reversed is regarded as if it had never existed, and the parties are restored to their rights as they were before it was rendered. * * After the reversal of the first decree, then, the defendant in error held the position of a party who had possessed himself of the property of another, without even the color of right to retain it. True he had the right when he acquired the possession but he has since lost it, and his possession has become tortious. * * He was bound to see, and doubtless, as he supposed, did see, that his proceedings were legal. In the collection of the money, he stood strictly upon his legal rights, and he cannot complain that the plaintiff in error, after the judgment is reversed, stands' upon his; nor can he be said to hold the position of one paying out money without notice that there was an adverse claim to it in his Hands. The fact that he collected the money forcibly by law, and alone upon the ground of legal right in himself, must always affect him with notice, so far as respects the rights of the plaintiff in error.”

[580]*580In Hay v. Bennett, 158 Ill. 271 (38 N. E. 645), an administrator was directed by a decree of the court to pay out of funds in his hands $3,500 to one of the parties to the suit in which the decree was rendered. He paid the money while the decree was in force and according to its terms. Afterwards the decree was reversed, and subsequently a suit was brought against him to recover the money. He justified payment by reason of the decree, but the court held that he, having been a party to the original suit, was bound by such reversal, although he had paid the money, relying upon the validity of the decree. This case is cited with approval in Miller v. Doran, 245 Ill. 200 (91 N. E. 1039).

In Stanbrough v. Cook, 86 Iowa, 740 (53 N. W. 131), which was an action for crops taken by defendant under a judgment which was afterwards reversed, the court say: “To our minds, the appellant discovers and solves the problem thus presented for us when he says in argument: ‘There is now, however, a practical difficulty in the way of our relying on the former judgment, namely, that it has been reversed.’ That is the true solution, and renders further comment’ unnecessary. An erroneous judgment, not final, would not protect the defendant in taking the property of the plaintiff. But it’is said the former judgment for the defendant ‘takes him our of the category of tresspassers, and puts him in as good a position as a defendant in an ordinary action for the recovery of real property.’ This is urged on the theory of his good faith. But the wrong done in good faith does not make it, in a legal sense, right. * * While good faith may sometimes affect the extent of liability for trespass, it does not excuse it. We are led intuitively to the thought suggested by the appellant that the judgment was reversed. It was not final, but erroneous, and gave no rights.” To like effect is the decision in Reynolds v. Hosmer, 45 Cal. 616.

[581]*581In U. S. Bank v. Bank of Washington, 6 Pet. 8 (8 L. Ed. 299), which was an action in assumpsit for money collected upon an execution of a judgment which was afterwards reversed, the court say: “On the reversal of the judgment, the law raises an obligation in the party to the record, who has received the benefit of the erroneous judgment, to make restitution to the other party for what he has lost, and the mode of proceeding to effect this object must be regulated according to circumstances. Sometimes it is done by writ of restitution, without scire facias, when the record shows the money has been paid, and there is a certainty as to what has been lost. In other cases, a scire facias may be necessary, to ascertain what is to be restored.

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Bluebook (online)
120 P. 393, 62 Or. 574, 1912 Ore. LEXIS 178, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/porter-v-small-or-1912.