Vincennes National Bank v. Cockrum

80 Ind. 355
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 15, 1881
DocketNo. 9044
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 80 Ind. 355 (Vincennes National Bank v. Cockrum) 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
Vincennes National Bank v. Cockrum, 80 Ind. 355 (Ind. 1881).

Opinion

Howk, J.

— This suit was commenced in the Gibson Circuit Court by the appellees, "William M. Cockrum, William L. Hargrove, James H. McConnell, Edward Rickard and John C. Blythe, as plaintiffs, against the appellants, the Vincennes National Bank and David Wilhite, and certain other defendants who have been named as appellees in this court. The complaint of the plaintiffs contained two paragraphs; and the object and purpose of their suit were to perpetually enjoin the appellant, the Vincennes National Bank, as the judgment plaintiff, and the appellant Wilhite, as the coroner of Gibson county, from collecting or attempting to collect certain judg[356]*356ments of the Gibson Circuit Court, and certain executions issued thereon to said coroner, described in said complaint, from the plaintiffs in this action.

Jefferson Turpin and John Sloan, two of the defendants in the plaintiffs’ complaint and named as appellees in this court, appeared by counsel and filed what is called their cross complaint, alleging therein substantially the same facts as were alleged in the plaintiffs’ complaint, and praying for themselves substantially the same relief as against the appellants, as the plaintiffs had prayed for in their complaint.

The appellant, the Vincennes National Bank, separately demurred to the complaint and said cross complaint; and before these demurrers were passed upon, on its application and by the agreement of the parties, the venue of the action was changed to the Vanderburgh Superior Court. The coznplaint and cross coznplaint having been duly verified, and the proper undertakings having been given and approved, a temporary restraiziing order was granted, as prayed for, until the final hearing of the cause.

In the court below, the demurrers of the Vincennes National Bank to the complaint and the cross complaint were severally overruled, and its exceptions were duly saved to each of these decisions. The appellants; the Vincennes National Bank and said David Wilhite, jointly answered the complaint and the cross complaint, by gezieral denials of their respective allegations. The issues joined were tried by a jury, azid a verdict was returned, finding for the plaintiffs below on their complaint and for the appellees Turpin and Sloan, defendants below, on their cross complaint. The appellants’ motion for a new trial having been overruled, and their several exceptions saved to this ruling, the court rendered judgments for perpetual injunctions, in accordance with the prayers of the complaint and the cross complaint.

In this court, errors have been assigned by the appellants, which call in question the sufficiency of the facts stated in the coznplaint and in the cross complaint to constitute causes of [357]*357action, and the correctness of the rulings of the superior court thereon, and of its decision in overruling their motion for a new trial of this cause.

The only material difference between the complaint and the cross complaint is the difference in the names of the parties, plaintiffs and defendants. The subject-matter of the cross complaint and its allegations of fact and prayer for relief are substantially the same as those of the complaint. Therefore, we need only consider the sufficiency of the facts stated in the complaint to constitute a cause of action; for, if the complaint is sufficient, so also is the cross complaint, or, if the complaint is bad, the cross complaint is also insufficient. The two paragraphs of the complaint, and the two paragraphs of the cross complaint, differ from each other only in this, that the judgment described in one paragraph of the complaint or cross complaint is not the judgment described in the other paragraph of the complaint or cross complaint. So that we need only consider the sufficiency of one paragraph of the complaint ; as our decision in regard to one will determine the question as to the sufficiency of the other paragraph, and as to each paragraph of the cross complaint.

In the first paragraph of their complaint, the plaintiffs below alleged in substance, that, by the consideration of the Gibson Circuit Court, the appellant, the Vincennes National Bank, on the 2d day of February, 1875, recovered judgment against Jacob W. Hargrove, Caleb Trippet, Richard M. J. Miller and Samuel Sterne, for the sum of $5,628; that, by the terms of said judgment, the said Miller and Sterne were adjudged to be the sureties -of the said Hargrove and Trippet, and it was ordered that the property of said Hargrove and Trippet should be exhausted before the property of said Miller and Sterne should be levied on, to satisfy said judgment or any part thereof; that afterward, on the 18th day of March, 1875, an execution was issued on said judgment against all of said judgment defendants to the sheriff of Gibson county; that while said execution was in the hands of said sheriff, and [358]*358before the expiration of the time allowed by law for the stay of execution on said judgment, the said Jacob W. Hargrove and Caleb Trippet, and the said Vincennes National Bank, made and entered into an agreement whereby it was stipulated and agreed that, if the said Hargrove would in a short time pay to said bank whatever sum of money he could raise, being as much at least as the interest on said judgment, equivalent to the interest usually paid tp banks, and being about eleven per cent, per annum, and also the interest on other judgments held against him by said bank, and if the said Hargrove and Trippet would each procure good and solvent sureties to enter themselves as replevin bail upon the said judgment, and on other judgments held by said bank against said Hargrove and Trippet, the said Hargrove procuring such bail for the one-half of the judgment and the said Trippet procuring such bail for the other half of said judgment, then the said bank would forbear to issue execution on the said judgment for the period of one year fron the date of entering such replevin bail on said judgment; that, after the making of said agreement, the said Jacob W. Hargrove procured the plaintiffs in this suit to sign an instrument, which was partly printed and partly written on the back of said execution, which was then in said sheriff’s hands, which said instrument is in the words and figures following, to wit:

“We acknowledge ourselves replevin bail for the payment of Jacob W. Hargrove’s one-half of the judgment, upon which the within execution has issued, together with the interest and costs accrued and to accrue, at or before the expiration of the time allowed by law for the stay of' execution on such judgment.” (Signed) “William L. Hargrove,
“July 31st, 1875. “William M. Cockrum,
“John H. McConnell,
“ Edward Eickard,
“ J. C. Blythe.
■ “ Taken and approved by me July 31st, 1875.
(Signed) “F. W. Hauss, Sheriff G. Co.”

[359]*359And the plaintiffs alleged, that at the same time and in like manner, the said Caleb Trippet procured the defendants Jefferson Turpin and John Sloan to execute and sign a written instrument, endorsed on said execution, whereby the said Turpin and Sloan acknowledged themselves replevin bail for said •Caleb Trippet, for the payment of the undivided one-half of the judgment upon which the execution was issued, with interest and costs accrued and to accrue thereon, at or before the expiration of the time allowed by law for the stay of execution thereon.

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Bluebook (online)
80 Ind. 355, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/vincennes-national-bank-v-cockrum-ind-1881.