Vincennes National Bank v. William M. Cockrum

1 Ind. L. Rep. 507
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedMay 27, 1881
StatusPublished

This text of 1 Ind. L. Rep. 507 (Vincennes National Bank v. William M. 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. William M. Cockrum, 1 Ind. L. Rep. 507 (Ind. 1881).

Opinion

Opinion of the court by

Mr. Chief Justice Howk.

This suit was commenced in the Gibson Circuit Court by the appellees, William M. Cockrum, William L, Hargrove, James H. [510]*510McConnell, Edward Richard 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 judgments 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 appellants 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 complaint and cross-complaint having been duly verified, and the proper undertakings having been given and approved, a temporary restraining 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 general denials of their respective allegations. The issues joined were tried by a jury, and 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.

[511]*511In this court, errors have been assigned by the appellants, which in question the sufficiency of the facts stated in the complaint and in the cross-complaint to constitute causes of actfon, 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-complaiqt, 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 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. Har-grove, Caleb Trippett, 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 Trippett, and it was ordered that the property of said Hargrove and Trippett should be exhausted before the property of said Miller and Sterne should be levied on to satisfy said judgment, or any part thereof; that, afterwards, on the 18th day of March, 1875, an execution was issued on said judgment against all said judgment-defendants to the sheriff of Gibson county; that while said execution was in the hands of said sheriff, and before the expiration of the time allowed by law for the stay of execution on said judgment, the said Jacob W. Hargrove and Caleb Trippett, and the said Vincennes National Bank, made and entered into an [512]*512agreement, 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 to 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 Trippett 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 Trippett, the said Hargrove procuring such bail for the one-half of the judgment, and the said Trippett 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 from 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,
“William M. Cockrtjm, “John H. McConnell,
“ Edward Richard,
“July 31, 1875. “ J. C. Blythe.”
“Taken and approved by me, July 31, 1875.”
(Signed,) “F. W. Hauss, Sheriff G. Co.”

And the plaintiffs alleged, that, at the same time and in like manner, the said Caleb Trippett procured the defendants, Jefferson Turpin and John Sloan, to execute and sign a written instrument, indorsed on said execution, whereby the said Turpin and Sloan acknowledged themselves replevin-bail for said Caleb Trippett for the payment of the undivided one-half of the judgment, upon [513]

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Bluebook (online)
1 Ind. L. Rep. 507, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/vincennes-national-bank-v-william-m-cockrum-ind-1881.