Williams v. Kemp

273 P. 12, 33 N.M. 593
New Mexico Supreme Court·Decided November 9, 1927·No. No. 3136.·Published·Cited by 12 cases

Opinions

OPINION OF THE COURT

WATSON, J.

In cause No. 1047 in the district court of Torrance county, judgment was entered in 1923 against Williams and in favor of Kemp and wife for $750, with interest thereon from November 5, 1919, and costs of suit; amounting in all to something over $900. Williams had agreed to purchase certain real estate from Kemp and wife, and had deposited, according to agreement, $750 in the Estancia Savings Bank, to be applied as part of the purchase price and as a forfeiture. The Kemps having tendered a good title, and Williams having refused to accept it, cause No. 1047 was instituted, and resulted as stated.

While cause No. 1047 was pending in the district court, the parties, by agreement, removed said sum of $750 from the Estancia Savings Bank and transferred the same to the Farmers’ & Stockmen’s Bank of Estancia, to abide the result of said suit, and to be delivered to the prevailing party.

From the judgment above mentioned, which included a provision that said sum should be by said bank paid to the Kemps, in reduction of the amount recovered, Williams appealed to this court and gave a supersedeas bond. This court affirmed the judgment and remanded the cause, with direction to the district court to enter judgment against the sureties upon Williams’ supersedeas bond. Such judgment was entered, execution was taken out, and the Kemps were thereby proceeding to the collection of their judgment, when the present suit was instituted by Williams to enjoin them from doing’so.

The complaint in the present suit alleges that pending the appeal in cause No. 1047, the Farmers’ & Stockmen’s Bank was apparently in a failing condition and that the attorneys for the parties entered into a stipulation for the removal of said $750 to the First National Bank of Santa Fe, to abide the result of the appeal, but that, because of the opposition of Kemp, the deposit was not removed according to the stipulation, and was entirely lost through the failure of said Farmers’ & Stockmen’s Bank.

A temporary injunction issued, enjoining any levy upon Williams’ property for the satisfaction of the judgment. A motion to dissolve the injunction having been overruled, appellant answered, and the. cause was tried. Upon specific findings and conclusions, the district court entered judgment which, in effect, required a credit of $750 to be given upon the judgment in cause No. 1047, and permitted only the balance to be collected. This judgment was entered of record October 22, 1925, and included an order allowing an appeal. A cost bond was given November 16, following. In the meantime, on November 11, upon appellee’s motion, the judgment was modified in the district court so as to permit the enforcement of the judgment in cause No. 1047, to the extent of the costs only, and to enjoin collection, not only of the $750, but of the interest which had been awarded thereon.

It seems to have been the theory of appellee, in planning his suit, that appellants, by objecting to and preventing the removal of the money to the Santa Fe bank, incurred some additional liability, and that they should be estopped in equity from seeking to recoup from appellee a loss for which he was not, and they were, practically responsible. In fact, the principal effort of both parties seems to have been directed to fixing on each other the blame for leaving the money in the bank which became insolvent. That question seems, however, to have had little, if any, bearing on the decision. The trial court, having found all facts requested by both parties, adopted the view that the deposit of the money amounted, according to the agreement of the parties, to payment by appellee of $750, conditioned only upon a judgment being obtained and not reversed. Thus the loss of the fund was the loss of the prevailing party, since the losing party was shown not to have contributed in any manner to the loss.

Such being the theory of decision, we see no materiality in appellants’ contention that no duty rested upon them to consent to a removal of the deposit or to take any precaution for its safety. Appellee recovered, not because of negligence of appellants with respect to a duty, but because he himself was not at fault.

Appellants contend that there is no evidence to support the finding that the money, originally deposited as a forfeiture, was redeposited to abide the result of suit No. 1047. This contenion, i.f having any bearing on the result, we cannot entertain. The finding is binding upon us. It was not excepted to. No contrary finding was proposed. It is not even attacked in the assignments of error.

It is contended that, when appellee gave the supersedeas in cause No. 1047, the effect was to release to him the money, that he could rightfully have demanded that-the bank turn it over tp him, and that, having failed to do so, its loss properly and legally falls upon him. We need not consider what merit this contention may have in law. AVe do not think that, in good conscience, appellants can be heard to urge it. Such was not their theory in refusing consent to the removal of the deposit; nor was it their counsel’s theory in proposing such removal. Having thus taken the position that they had some interest in and control over the deposit, they cannot now be heard to repudiate it.

Certain objections are made to the sufficiency of the complaint to warrant injunctive relief. The complaint was not demurred to. It was attacked by motion to dissolve the temporary injunction. Whether such motion was equivalent in this case to a demurrer, we need not consider. Some of the objections were, in their substance, clearly without merit. The objection, that conclusions of law were pleaded, is not properly raised by demurrer. Michelet v. Cole, 20 N. M. 357, 149 P. 310; Maddison v. Bryan, 31 N. M. 404, at page 426, 247 P. 275. The objection, that payment or tender of the amount “admittedly due on the said judgment in excess of the alleged deposit of $750,” was not good, because no such excess appeared on the face of the complaint.

One point raised by the motion to dissolve, and here urged, is that appellee had an adequate remedy at law by motion in cause No. 1047 to quash or recall the execution. Without deciding whether such remedy was available to appellee, it is clear that the right to such remedy by motion would have depended upon the showing made in the injunction case. This involved disputed questions of fact and controverted points of law, more properly to be heard and decided in a suit in equity than on a motion to quash a writ. We find it thus laid down in 23 C. J. at page 554:

“If defendant can obtain a' satisfactory remedy by a simple motion to the court which issued the execution, it would be absurd to go into equity to obtain relief. Equity will not listen to such a case. Injunction will not lie where the remedy is by appeal, or supersedeas, or where defendant may have relief by affidavit of illegality, interpleader, or by trespass to try title, or by the statutory remedy of trial of the right of property. But an injunction has been considered an appropriate remedy where the writ has been issued beyond the territorial limits of the court’s jurisdiction, or where the situation presents several complicated questions of lavs csni fact."

It is said in 10 R. C. L. at page 1255:

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