Sellers v. Ladd

10 Tenn. App. 347
CourtCourt of Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedMay 6, 1929
StatusPublished

This text of 10 Tenn. App. 347 (Sellers v. Ladd) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sellers v. Ladd, 10 Tenn. App. 347 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1929).

Opinion

SENTER, J.

The original bill filed in this cause sought to impound in the chancery court of Roane county, the sum of $800, and to enjoin the levy of an execution placed in the hands of J. B. Ladd, a deputy sheriff of Roane county, on allegations contained in the bill that the defendant, R. AY. Mounger, had obtained a judgment in the chancery court of Roane county against M. E. Sellers and one W. P. Gallahar, as surety on a note, amounting to about $1200; that after said judgment had been obtained against defendant Sellers and said Gallahar, complainant M. H. Sellers and J. M. Haguewood had obtained a judgment against said R. W. Mounger for the sum of $520.16 in the chancery court of Roane county, and that after said decree for said judgment had been obtained, that the defendant Mounger appealed from the judgment to the Court of Appeals, and that pending a decision in the Court of Appeals, and anticipating that the judgment would be affirmed, the defendant, R. W. Mounger, procured the issuance of an execution to be levied in satisfaction'of the judgment which he had obtained against Sellers and Gallahar, with the fraudulent intent to realize on said judgment and to obtain the money thereon so as to prevent the same, or any part of the same, to be applied to the judgment against him and which was then pending on appeal. The bill further alleged that defendant, R. W. Mounger, was insolvent, and that if he was permitted to collect the said judgment that he would’ squander the same or conceal it, so that it could not be applied to the judgment which complainants' had obtained against him. The original bill sought to impound a sufficient amount of said judgment in the chancery court of Roane county, where both causes were then pending, to satisfy the judgment which complainants had obtained against the defendant Mounger, or until the case then pending on appeal had been finally determined, and sought to impound and to hold in the court as much as $800 of said judgment to satisfy the judgment against Mounger and the costs, and to enjoin • the defendant Mounger from further proceedings on the execution, and to enjoin the deputy sheriff, Ladd, from levying, the execution, *349 pending the determination of their suit against Mounger then in the Court of Appeals. The order impounding the sum of $800 and the fiat for the injunction were granted by the Chancellor, but on a subsequent motion to dissolve, the amount ordered so impounded was reduced from- $800 to $650, and the injunction bond was increased to $1000, and continued in force pending a hearing on the merits.

The defendant, R. W. Mounger, filed an answer, in which he denied that the complainants obtained a judgment against him for the sum of $520.16, or any other sum, and denied that there was a record of said judgment as alleged in the bill, and demanded that complainants prove the allegations. The answer admitted that the defendant, R. "W. Mounger, secured a decree in the chancery court against M. H. Sellers and W. F. Gallahar, and which cause of action was founded on a suit filed against said defendants to recover on a note for the sum of $1200 given by the complainant, Sellers, to the defendant, Mounger, with "W. H. Gallahar as surety thereon; and admitted that he had procured the issuance of an execution on said decree against M. II. Sellers and W. P. Gallahar, and that he was seeking to collect the judgment decreed him in said cause, but alleged that he had a right to collect said judgment by the issuance and levy of an execution. The answer denied that the complainants are entitled to a credit of the $520.16, or any other sum, and denied that the complainants had a judgment against him, or that they were being hindered or prevented in the collection of the same. The answer admitted that in the case of James J. Mounger, et al., v. M. H. Sellers and J. M. Haguewood, Executors, that a decree was rendered in favor of M. H. Sellers for said sum of $520.16, but alleged that said decree was void, and that he had appealed from said decree to the Court of Appeals, and which appeal had been perfected and was then pending in the Court of Appeals, and that said appeal operated to vacate the decree.

The answer denied that the complainants w'ere entitled to impound any part of his judgment obtained by him against M. H. Sellers and W. P. Gallahar. and denied that complainants were entitled to the injunctive relief and other relief sought.

At the hearing of the cause the Chancellor decreed in favor of complainants, and sustained the bill, and directed that the/ judgment obtained by the comnlainants in the Court of Appeals at "Knoxville, for the sum of $538.01. be offset against Mounger’s judgment, of $672.75. and decreed that Mounger was entitled to recover of complainants and sureties on the injunction bond, the difference amounting to $143.45. The Chancellor found that the complainants had recovered a judgment in the Court of Appeals against Richard "W. Mounger for the sum of $538.01 (that being the judgment decreed in the lower court; plus costs in the Court of Appeals), and *350 that complainants were indebted to Mounger in the sum of $672.75.

From this decree the defendant, R. W. Mounger, has appealed to this court, and has assigned the action of the Chancellor as error, contending under the assignments that there was no evidence of a judgment in favor of complainants, M. H. Sellers and J. M. Ilaguewood, against appellant for any sum, and that the injunction should have been dissolved; that there was no evidence that the complainants, M. H. Sellers and J. M. Ilaguewood, were indebted to the defendant, Richard Mounger, in the sum of $672.75.

The defendant, R. W. Mounger,' filed a certified copy of the decree in the ease of James J. Mounger, et al. v. M. H. Sellers and J. M. Haguewood, Executors, et al., as an exhibit to the answer, and as evidence. A certified copy of the decree of the Court of Appeals affirming the decree of the Chancellor in the same suit, was also filed as evidence. The case was heard by the Chancellor on the bill and answer and the certified copy of the decree made exhibit to the answer, and the certified copy of the decree of the Court of Appals, there being no other evi4ence by either party.

The allegations contained in the original bill, together with the admissions contained in the answer of defendant Mounger, and the recitations in the final decree in the’ case of James G. Mounger, et al. v. M. H. Sellers and J. M. Haguewood, Executors, et al., and the decree in the same case by the Court of Appeals, we think abundantly warranted the decree of the Chancellor in the present suit.

In the final decree in the former suit of James G. Mounger, et al. v. M. H. Sellers, et al., it was decreed that on February 20, 1923, M. II. Sellers gave his note to R. W. Mounger, with W. F. Gallahar, as surety, for the sum of $1200, and that said note was given as part payment of the amount due said Mounger out of the estate of his deceased father; that R. "W. Mounger brought suit in the chancery court of Roane county against M. H. Sellers and W. F. Gallahar on said note, and recovered a judgment in a pro con-fesso for the amount of said note with interest and attorneys fees, which judgment the defendants sought to have set aside but failed; that at the hearing of the ease it appeared by admissions of the parties made in open court that the cause of R. W. Mounger against M. IT. Sellers had not been finally disposed of.

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