Webb v. McFarlin & Co.

58 So. 453, 177 Ala. 531, 1911 Ala. LEXIS 431
CourtSupreme Court of Alabama
DecidedDecember 21, 1911
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 58 So. 453 (Webb v. McFarlin & Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Webb v. McFarlin & Co., 58 So. 453, 177 Ala. 531, 1911 Ala. LEXIS 431 (Ala. 1911).

Opinion

MAYFIELD, J.

This is an action on an injunction bond.

Appellants were the owners of 50 acres of land on" Red Mountain, about two miles south of the central part of the city of Birmingham. The property was considered valuable chiefly for two reasons — one, its adaptability for suburban residence sites, and the other, its deposits of iron ore. One of the appellants had his residence upon the property. For the purpose of utilizing the iron ore and preparing the land for permanent residence property, appellants entered into a lease contract with appellees, by which the appellees acquired the right to mine' and sell all the marketable iron ore upon the premises. The reporter will set out this contract in full. The appellees had five years in which to mine and sell the ore. They were to pay appellants a royalty of about 20 cents per ton for all ore mined and taken from the land, and were required, after the first six xnonths, to mine at least 1,500 tons per month, or, in default therein, to pay the royalty upon that amount, in the manner and at the times the royalty would have been paid had 1,500 tons of ore been mined. The contract provided, among other [541]*541things, that: “All that part of the said premises that is used by the said Sterling A. Wood as his residence, or accessory to the same, is reserved from this lease until he removes therefrom, not exceeding six months from date; and all mining operations conducted on said term are to be conducted as directed by him, and not otherwise, during his residence thereon. * * * That they (appellees) will mine and transport the said iron ore in a practical and uniform manner, as may be directed by the engineer in charge of the interests of the parties of the first part, and not otherwise,” etc.

Appellees began operations under this contract soon after it was made in January, 1908, and continued so to do until the 23d day of April, 1903, when they were enjoined, at the suit of appellants, from further mining on said lands. The injunction was in force for only about 2 weeks, 12 working days, when it was dissolved, and appelleees went back to work under the contract. On the 24th day of July, 1903, appellees instituted this suit upon the injunction bond, claiming damages, general and special, as for costs and attorney’s fees in defending the injunction suit or procuring the dissolution, for loss of time, for expenses on account of the. injunction, and for the profits plaintiffs would have realized during said 12 working days but for the injunction. There were various motions to strike parts of the complaint, and demurrers thereto, unnecessary to be here considered, because the rulings thereon are not insisted as error in argument.

The appellants filed a great number of pleas to the complaint, in the nature of pleas of set-off or recoupment, claiming damages for various breaches of the mining contract, as set forth in the pleas. The case was tried upon these issues by the court without a jury, and a special finding of facts was made by the court, [542]*542and entered of record, as required by the statute. The trial resulted in a judgment for plaintiffs for $2,032— more than the amount of the bond, which was $2,000. Prom that judgment this appeal is prosecuted.

There are 149 assignments of error. It would be a needless consumption of time and space to attempt to treat separately each of those various assignments. We shall, therefore, treat them in a general way, stating the law, as we conceive it to be, upon Avhich depend the rights of the litigants involved on this appeal. There is no doubt that the plaintiffs were entitled to recover in this action all the damages they sustained by reason of the suing out of the injunction, for this was warranted by the terms and conditions of the bond. LikeAvise, there is no doubt that the defendants were entitled to set off or recoup any damages they may have sustained by reason of breaches of the lease contract by the plaintiffs, if such breaches and damages were shown, as alleged in the pleas. In fact, this much is not denied by the parties to this appeal. The difference in the contentions of the parties goes to the kind, shown on the trial, by the respective parties. We find no reversible error on the part of. the trial court as to the amount of damages shown by and allowed to the plaintiff, as for costs and expenses in defending the injunction suit, to the extent of procuring the dissolution of the injunction, in the Avay of attorneys’ fees and other items. The trial court properly limited the damages as to these items, and, as to these matters, we find no error of which appellants can complain.

We are of the opinion, however, that the trial court committed reversible error in allowing the plaintiffs to-recover, as for a separate and distinct item, the “prospective profits” which the plaintiffs could have made by the operation of the lease during the 12 days in [543]*543which they were enjoined from activity. While the plaintiffs were entitled to recover, as an element of damages, the value of their lease during this 12 days of suspension, such value is not to be measured, as the trial court permitted it to be measured, by the net profits which the plaintiffs could have realized from the mining and sale of ore during these 12 days but for the injunction. While the evidence of these facts was admissible, the net profit which could and would probably have been realized during these 12 days is not the value of the lease during such period. While at first thought it would appear to be the same thing, or to fall within the axiom that “things which are equal to the same thing are equal to each other,” yet, on close examination, they are in this case found not to be the same, and not to be equal to the same thing. If the effect of the injunction had been to prevent the plaintiffs from performing or completing their contract, then the net profits that they would have realized would have been the value of their lease for the remaining time, and their prosepective profits, if capable of ascertainment, would be the measure of their damages; this being a contract of the kind in which profits may be recovered as an element of damages. But this was not the effect of the injunction in this case. The plaintiffs went on with the performance of their contract after the 12 days of suspension on account of the injunction. Of course, as before stated, they were entitled to recover whatever damages they sustained by reason of this suspension; but the net profit Avhich they could haAre realized from the sale of ore taken from the land during that 12 days interim Avas not the proper measure of this item of damages; instead such measure Avas the value of the lease contract during such period of suspended operation. Suppose they could have com[544]*544pleted the entire contract within those 12 days, but, on account of the suspension, it required 24 days to complete it; would it be contended that in this suit they could recover all the profits they would have made on the entire contract, plus the profits they did actually make, plus the costs, expenses, and loss of time incurred on account of the injunction? If so, the effect of the injunction would be to double their profits. Yet this is exactly what was done in this case, to the extent to which the contract was performed after the injunction was dissolved. As before stated, if the effect of the injunction had been to prevent the further performance of their contract, the rule would have been different. In that contingency the profits allowed would not be double.

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Bluebook (online)
58 So. 453, 177 Ala. 531, 1911 Ala. LEXIS 431, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/webb-v-mcfarlin-co-ala-1911.