Richey v. Butler

50 So. 2d 441, 255 Ala. 150, 1951 Ala. LEXIS 278
CourtSupreme Court of Alabama
DecidedFebruary 8, 1951
Docket6 Div. 153, 154, 159
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 50 So. 2d 441 (Richey v. Butler) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Richey v. Butler, 50 So. 2d 441, 255 Ala. 150, 1951 Ala. LEXIS 278 (Ala. 1951).

Opinion

LAWSON, Justice.

On December 7, 1950, we took submission in three cases which relate to the incorporation of the town of Brownville in Jefferson County. These cases were consolidated and all will be treated in this opinion.

6 Div. 153 is an appeal from a decree of the circuit court of Jefferson County, in equity, Bessemer Division, discharging a temporary injunction, sustaining demurrer to the bill for injunction, and dismissing the bill. § 757, Title 7, Code 1940.

The bill for injunction was filed on October 6, 1950, by appellants, B. R. Richey et al., against appellees, George Butler, W. C. Weldon, and Mrs. Bell Lacey. The respondents had been appointed by the probate judge of Jefferson County as inspectors to manage an election which had been ordered to be held on October 10, 1950, to determine whether the town of Brown-ville should come into existence. The complainants, qualified voters or owners of property in the territory proposed to be incorporated, sought to restrain the respondents “from holding said election on said 10th day of October, 1950 or any other day until the restraining order be released * *

The theory of the bill for injunction or restraining order was that the order of the probate judge calling the election and appointing the respondents as inspectors was void because of the absence of a jurisdictional averment in the petition initiating the proceedings for incorporation.

Upon the filing of the bill and on ex parte application to Judge Mathews, the temporary injunction or restraining order was granted as prayed.

On October 9, 1950, the respondents filed their motion to dissolve, their demurrer to the bill, and their sworn answer.

[153]*153The next entry in the record is as follows :

“Decree
“This cause coming on to be heard on motion to dissolve the injunction issued on, to-wit: October 6, 1950, in this cause restraining the holding of an election of the incorporation of the Town of Brown-ville and the court having heard the arguments on the demurrer to the bill and the motion to dissolve and sworn answer of the Respondents, the court is of the opinion that the bill is without equity and the demurrer should be sustained thereto.
“It is therefore ordered, adjudged and decreed as follows:
“(1) That the demurrer to the bill of complaint is sustained.
“(2) That the temporary restraining order issued in this cause on, to-wit, October 6, 1950, be and the same is hereby dissolved and the bill is dismissed.
“Done this the 9th day of October, 1950.
“F. R. Mathews “Judge.”

Appellants insist that the decree appealed from should be reversed for the reason that the ten-day notice provided for by § 1052, Title 7, Code 1940, was not given to the complainants. But Equity Rule 93, Code 1940, Tit. 7 Appendix, provides as follows: “Motions to dissolve injunctions, when made while the court is in session, may be submitted during the call for motions, on one day’s notice, or at the regular call of the docket; but if the cause is then ready for hearing on the merits, the court must proceed with the hearing, without taking up the motion separately. When there is a demurrer for want of equity or other cause, and the motion to dissolve the injunction is made before the court in session, the demurrer must be heard in connection with the motion; but if there is no demurrer, the equity of the bill must, nevertheless, be considered by the court, and if it wants equity, it must be dismissed; but no motion shall be made to dissolve an injunction on the denials of the answer, unless the answer has been filed at least twenty-four hours, and is sworn to.”

True, this rule has application while court is in session. While it appears that the proceedings Were had at a regular term of the court, it does not expressly appear that court was in session. But it does not appear that it was not in session, and when nothing appears to the contrary in the record, we will presume that the decree was rendered at a session of the court ordered pursuant to Equity Rule 61. If a party wishes to contest that fact, the contrary not appearing on its face, and claims prejudice on account of it, he should move in the circuit court to set it aside. Stansell v. Tharp, 245 Ala. 270, 16 So.2d 857; Ex Parte Robinson, 244 Ala. 313, 13 So.2d 402; Lee v. Gaines, 244 Ala. 664, 15 So.2d 330; Caudle v. Cotton, Sheriff, 234 Ala. 126, 173 So. 847; West v. State ex rel. Matthews, 233 Ala. 588, 173 So. 46; McCary v. McCary, 253 Ala. 468, 45 So.2d 292.

Equity Rule 93, supra, requires one day’s notice before submission may be had on motion to dissolve injunction while court is in session, except upon the regular call of the docket. It does not require that such motion be actually filed one day or twenty-four hours before submission on the motion to dissolve except as to motions to dissolve on the denials of the answer. None of the grounds of the motion to dissolve filed by respondents below were based on the denials of the answer. Although the motion to dissolve was filed on the same day the injunction was dissolved, the requirements of Rule 93 as to notice would have been met if complainants had been given one day’s notice. In the absence of some showing that such notice was not given, we will presume that it was given. If as a matter of fact, the complainants did not receive notice, motion could have been made to set aside the decree on that ground. McCary v. McCary, supra. Moreover, it not appearing that the motion to dissolve was not made at the regular call of the docket, we will presume that it was made at that time.

[154]*154It affirmatively appears that the answer had not been filed twenty-four hours prior to the making of the motion to dissolve, as is required by Rule 93. But, as before pointed out, the motion to dissolve was not based on the denials of the answer and, as we understand the decree, the injunction was dissolved on the ground that the bill was without equity, as pointed out in the motion to dissolve and in the demurrer. But even if the decree had been general and .there had been included in the motion to dissolve grounds to the effect that the answer denied the equity of the bill, it would not have been error to dissolve the injunction if the bill was without equity, since there were grounds of the motion to dissolve taking that point. In Auto Mut. Indemnity Co. v. Moore, 235 Ala. 426, 429, 179 So. 368, 369, it was said:

“The first proposition argued by appellant in brief is that the court committed error in dissolving the injunction when the answer of respondents, which was considered on the motion, was not verified.
“The motion to dissolve was made on the grounds that there was no equity in the hill, and because the answer denied the equity of the bill. No answer had then been filed. On the day that motion was heard, an unsworn answer was filed. Objection was made because it was unsworn, and the objection was overruled. The motion to dissolve was then heard, and that included in the submission the answer as expressly stated in the minutes.
“The decree of the court was general and did not state whether it was based on a want of equity or on the denials of the answer.

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Bluebook (online)
50 So. 2d 441, 255 Ala. 150, 1951 Ala. LEXIS 278, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/richey-v-butler-ala-1951.