Strong v. Taylor School Township

79 Ind. 208
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 15, 1881
DocketNo. 8920
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 79 Ind. 208 (Strong v. Taylor School Township) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Strong v. Taylor School Township, 79 Ind. 208 (Ind. 1881).

Opinion

Franklin, C.

— Appellees, Taylor School Township and Taylor Township of Hari’ison County, Indiana, Daniel Flanagan, administrator of the estate of William S. Flanagan, deceased, Bella C. Kent, and Margaret Brown, administratrix of the estate of Thompson Brown, deceased, sued appellants, Thomas Strong, Sarah E. Zenor, Ellen Carter and Francis Carter, to set aside certain alleged fraudulent conveyances of real estate made by said Strong to said Sarah E. Zenor and Ellen Carter. The complaint originally embraced other parties plaintiffs, but the cause of action as to them was subsequently dismissed. The complaint as it was originally filed was in the name of the State, ex rel. The Trustee of the Township, and did not include the name of Flanagan’s administrator. On leave of the court, over the objections of appellants, the complaint was amended by making new parties plaintiffs, and inserting the names of the School Township, Civil Township, and Flanagan, administrator of Flanagan’s estate.

Appellants moved to strike out of the amended complaint [210]*210the names of the new parties plaintiffs, and all parts of the-complaint in relation to their causes of action, which was overruled by the court.

A demurrer to the amended complaint was overruled, and appellants moved that plaintiffs be required to paragraph their complaint, which was also overruled.

Appellants then moved the court to strike out of the complaint all the parts in relation to the separate deeds made to-Sarah E. Zenor and E%n Carter, which was also overruled.

Appellants then answered separately in two paragraphs: 1st, a denial; 2d, specially.

Trial by jury. Verdict for appellees.

Motion for a venire de novo, separate motions for a new trial, and a motion to modify the judgment, overruled, to all of which rulings proper exceptions were reserved, and alleged errors-have been assigned in this court upon each of said rulings.

The first and second alleged errors may be considered together, as the objections to the amendment making new parties plaintiffs, and the motion to strike out all in relation to the amendment, present the same questions.

As to the township, this suit was commenced in the same name that a former suit upon the bond of appellant Strong, as former trustee of the township, had been prosecuted to judgment. While it was proper to prosecute that suit upon the bond in the name of the State, ex rel., etc., it is not proper to prosecute this suit in that name. But the amendment did not change the real cause of action. The gist of the cause of action was to set aside certain alleged fraudulent conveyances, and not for the purpose of obtaining judgments upon plaintiffs’ several claims. That had already been done. It would not affect appellants’ rights whether two or ten judgment plaintiffs united in the prosecution of this action. The plaintiffs who were properly in would have better reasons for objecting to others coming in, than appellants could possibly have. But the parties themselves desiring to become plaintiffs, having a unity of interests in the objects of suit, upon [211]*211petition, would have a right to be admitted as co-plaintiffs. And if they are admitted by the court upon the motion of the plaintiffs, we see no sufficient grounds for the objection and motions of appellants. There was no error in overruling them. In the case of Robbins v. The Sand Greek Turnpike Go,, 34 Ind. 461, the court quoted the following language approvingly: “ Several persons having a common interest arising out of the same transaction or subject of litigation, though their interests be separate, may join in one suit for equitable relief, provided their interests be not adverse or conflicting. * * * And several judgment creditors, holding different judgments, may unite in filing a creditors’ bill to reach the equitable interests and choses in action of the debtor, or to obtain the aid of the court to enforce their liens at law.”

And in the case of Powell v. Spaulding, 3 Greene, Iowa, 443, 461, the doctrine is laid down to be, that “ where there is unity in interest, as to the object to be obtained by the bill, the parties seeking redress in chancery, may join in the same complaint and maintain their action together.”

The third and fourth alleged errors were the overruling of appellants’ demurrers to the complaint. These demurrers were for two causes, want of sufficient facts and misjoinder of causes of action.

The objection to the complaint under the first cause is, that there is a misjoinder of parties plaintiffs as to Brown’s administratrix ; that in the complaint there was no cause of action shown as to her; that' although Brown had been one of the sureties for Strong, on his bond as trustee, and for Strong?s default as such trustee a claim had been allowed against Brown’s estate for $4,317.68, yet she had paid nothing on said claim, and as the representative of such surety she could not bring an action until she had paid something. It may be somewhat questionable in this class of cases, whether the demurrer in this form properly raises this question. In Story’s Equity Pleading, section 509, it is said that a demurrer reaches too many parties plaintiffs. In the case of Berk [212]*212shire v. Shultz, 25 Ind. 523, it was held that the fourth statutory cause for demurrer, a defect of parties, plaintiff or defendant, only applies to too few parties; and, where there are too many defendants, the ones against whom no cause of action is shown can take advantage of it by demurring separately for that cause. But if there are too many plaintiffs, that objection can be raised by demurring generally for the fifth cause, the want of sufficient facts, without making a specific application of it to the plaintiff in whom.no cause of action is shown to exist, and the remedy is to strike his name out of the complaint, or amend so as to show a cause of action in him. So, whatever reasons might exist for making the rule applicable to too many plaintiffs, similar to the one adopted for too many defendants, it appears to be otherwise settled by this court. But we think the rule thus adopted should not be made to extend beyond that class of cases where the plaintiffs jointly sue upon a joint cause of action, and in this class of cases, where the plaintiffs jointly sue upon separate causes of action, having a unity of interests in the object or purpose of the suit, those who have a good cause of action ought to be permitted to prosecute their suit without being subjected to a demurrer for the want of sufficient facts. Be this as it may, let us see whether the facts alleged are sufficient for the administratrix to maintain this suit. As the representative of the surety she could not maintain an action against the principal for the recovery of money,^nless some had been paid for him. But she was not seeking to recover money in this case; she was only seeking to make the property of the principal pay his debts, for a part of which she, as such representative, stood liable. She had an equitable right to have the property of the principal exhausted before resort was had to the estate of the surety, which she represented.

In the case of Gunel v. Cue, 72 Ind. 34, this court held that a surety holding an indemnifying mortgage, after the maturity of the debt, if the mortgage contained a stipulation for the mortgagor to pay the money, could foreclose the mortgage [213]

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Bluebook (online)
79 Ind. 208, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/strong-v-taylor-school-township-ind-1881.