State ex rel. v. Purcell

5 S.E. 301, 31 W. Va. 44, 1888 W. Va. LEXIS 23
CourtWest Virginia Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 18, 1888
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 5 S.E. 301 (State ex rel. v. Purcell) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering West Virginia Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State ex rel. v. Purcell, 5 S.E. 301, 31 W. Va. 44, 1888 W. Va. LEXIS 23 (W. Va. 1888).

Opinions

Woods, Judge :

It will be observed that the injunction awarded in this cause was not an injunction to stay proceedings on a judgment or decree for the payment of money, and was not therefore one where the bond was required by section 10 of chapter 133 of the Code to be with “condition to pay such judgment or decree and all such costs as may be awarded against the party obtaining the injunction and also such damages as shall be incurred or sustained by the person enjoined in case the injunction be dissolved.” The injunction being to prevent J. T. Griffith from collecting from the Norfolk and Western or East River Railroad Company certain estimates then due and soon to become due to the firm of Griffith & Purcell, as well as any other moneys due or to become due to said firm, and to prevent said railroad company from paying such estimates to Griffith, and to prevent Griffith from interfering with or removing the books of the said firm, until the further order of the court, it became the duty of the judge awarding the injunction to prescribe the penalty and condition of such bond, and in his order he did so, by requiring the bond to be in the penalty of $1,000.00, “with condition for the payment of all such costs and damages as may be awarded to the defendant, Griffitn, should this injunction be dissolved.”

It is apparent that upon the dissolution of this injunction the court could award the defendant no damages whatever, for by the twelfth section of said chapter 133 such damages can only be awarded upon the dissolution of an injunction to stay proceedings upon a judgment or decree for the payment of money. The damages, which the judge awarding the injunction intended to secure by the condition of the bond as [49]*49prescribed by Mm in Ms order, were such special damages as might result to the defendant, Griffith, by being prevented from collecting said estimates and moneys doe to the firm of Griffith & Purcell, and from interfering with or removing the books of said firm. If, therefore, no such damages resulted to Griffith from the suing out of said injunction, then none could be recovered upon such bond, for in that respect there could be no breach of the condition of the bond.

If any such special damages have been the necessary or immediate result of the suing out of the injunction, they must be known to the party so injured. He will be able to state the character of each particular injury resulting therefrom, the manner in which and the extent to which he has been damaged, and the pecuniary loss necessarily or immediately occasioned thereby. When he seeks to recover from the alleged wrong-doer compensation for the loss resulting therefrom, the plainest principles of justice as well as the established rules of pleading require that in any judicial proceeding instituted for that purpose the injuries complained of and the damages resulting therefrom should be set forth with such reasonable particularity and certainty that his adversary may be informed of the precise character of the demand, and be able, if any he has, to make his defence against it.

From what has already been said, it, is apparent that the condition of the injunction bond described in the declaration is more comprehensive than the condition of the bond required to be given by order of the judge awarding the injunction. The latter was “for the payment of all such costs and damages as might be awarded to Griffith should the injunction be dissolved,” while that inserted in the bond is that Purcell will “pay any decree or order that may be awarded against him,” and also “all such costs and damages as shall be incurred or sustained by Griffith in case the injunction be dissolved.” It is contended by the defendants in error that as the condition of the bond is more comprehensive than that prescribed by the order of the judge, it is void in to to, and if not totally void, it is void as to so much of the condition as is in excess of the order of the judge, and upon these two legal propositions the defendants’ special pleas Nos. 1, 2 and 3 are based.

[50]*50Before considering these propositions or the sufficiency of these pleas and the plaintiff’s special replications to plea No. 3, we will consider the precise character and extent of the claim presented in the declaration. As already shown, the breaches of the condition of the bond assigned in both counts in regard to the damages claimed are in terms so general as to include any or every possible injury from the suing out of the injunction which could constitute a cause of action, while at the same time they wholly fail to inform the defendants of any particular injury complained of or of any damages resulting therefrom. In the case under consideration there could be no damages awarded by the court on the dissolution of the injunction. Special damages resulting therefrom, if any were sustained, could only be recovered in an action instituted on the injunction bond for that purpose; and in such action the injuries resulting in such damages must be alleged with such clearness and distinctness of statement that they may be understood by the party who is to answer them, by the jury who is to ascertain the truth of the allegations, and by the court who is to give the judgment. Rex v. Horne, 2 Cowp., top p. 672; Andrews v. Whitehead.) 13 East 102; Ward v. Harris, 2 Bos. & P. 265; Com. Dig. “Pleader,” ch. 17; 1 Chit. Pl. 236, 348.

Neither of the counts alleges any special damages sustained by the relator resulting from the suing out of the injunction ; and none' having been alleged, the Circuit Court did not err in excluding from the jury the evidence offered by him tending to show that he had sustained special damages in his business as a railroad contractor by the suing out of the injunction. While the declaration has not been prepared by the pleader with as much accuracy and precision of statement as is desirable, and has thereby confounded in some cases the “plaintiff” with the “relator,” and has used them'interchangeably, as synonymous, and has in one instance in the first count used the name of Thomas Purcell for that of Edmund Purcell, yet these errors could mislead no one, as the person intended in each case sufficiently appears from other parts of the declaration.

From the statement of the pleadings hereinbefore given, it is apparent that every allegation necessary to entitle the re[51]*51lator to a recovery on the bond, if the same be valid, of the amount of the decree for $1,145.28, with interest from — day of November, 1883, and $147.66 costs, substantially appears on the face of the declaration, and that, if the same had been demurred to, the demurrer should have been overruled; for enough appears on the face of the declaration to enable the court to “render judgment thereon according to law and the very right of the case.” Section 29, ch. 125, Code.

From the view we have taken of the main question in this controversy, it becomes immaterial to inquire whether special damages were sustained by the relator or not, as the j udgment which the court should have rendered would have been the same in either event. Not having demurred to the declaration, whatever errors were committed by the plaintiff appearing on the face thereof are after a trial 'of the action by the court by consent of parties, as well as after a verdict, cured by the statute of jeofails, unless there be omitted something so essential to the action. * * * that judgment according to the law and the very right of the case can not be given. Section 3, ch. 134, and § 29, ch. 125, Code; Holliday's Ex'rs v. Myers, 11 W. Va.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
5 S.E. 301, 31 W. Va. 44, 1888 W. Va. LEXIS 23, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-v-purcell-wva-1888.