Winton v. Morss

97 Pa. 385, 1881 Pa. LEXIS 88
CourtSupreme Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedMarch 11, 1881
DocketNos. 43 and 82
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 97 Pa. 385 (Winton v. Morss) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Winton v. Morss, 97 Pa. 385, 1881 Pa. LEXIS 88 (Pa. 1881).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Paxson

delivered the opinions of the court May 2d 1881.

Winton’s Appeal.

This proceeding was in the nature of a supplemental bill in aid of a decree in equity. It is not so technically, for the reason that it was commenced by petition. The form adopted was not objected to, nor is it material.

That a bill may he filed for such a purpose is well settled. It is true it cannot vary the principle of the decree. Its province is to carry out the decree, and to give full and complete effect to it as it exists: Hodson v. Ball, 1 Phil. Ch. 177; Adams’s Equity, 416, where several authorities are cited.

It would be tedious to recite all the prior proceedings in this case. The original decree which it is now sought to enforce was entered January 26th 1875, on a bill filed by this appellant, praying that a certain deed and certain assignments specified in said bill, may respectively be decreed to be a mortgage; that the amount due by said plaintiff (appellant) may he ascertained, and that when so ascertained, upon the payment thereof by the plaintiff (which payment in full the plaintiff' offered to make), the defendant may be decreed to make and execute “ a deed of conveyance for the undivided one-third part of the said tract of land aforesaid.” A protracted litigation resulted in the decree of January 26th 1875, before referred to, which sustained the position [394]*394assumed by the plaintiff, that the papers referred to, though absolute on their face, yet in reality constituted a mortgage. The decree further ordered, that upon the payment by the plaintiff of the costs of suit, the defendant should convey a one-third interest in the Calvin Barber tract; and that upon the payment by the plaintiff to the defendants of the sum, of $10,941.52, they should convey another third of said tract. In obedience to this decree the defendants executed the necessary conveyances for the Newton third and the Vosburg third of said tract of land, tendered them to the said plaintiff, who refused to accept them and to pay the money. The deeds were then filed;

This proceeding was then commenced in the court below. Upon the filing of a petition setting forth the facts, the court granted a rule upon the plaintiff and also upon the Delaware & Hudson Canal .Company, lessees of the land in controversy, to show cause why the amount of rent in the hands of said company, due the plaintiff, should not be ascertained and applied to the payment of the amount found to be due defendants by the decree of January 26th 1875; and also to show cause why the Vosburg third of said tract should not be sold for a like purpose. This proceeding^ resulted in the following decree: “Now, May 12th 1879, this cause came on to be further heard, and was argued by counsel, and and thereupon upon consideration, it is ordered, adjudged and decreed that the sum of $4100.53, one-half thereof being from the Vosburg third, and the other half being from the Newton third, ascertained to be now in the hands of the Delaware & Hudson Canal Company as indifferent stakeholders, and not involved in any possible litigation between the company and the grantors, under whom the plaintiff claims, nor between the company and the plaintiff himself, be paid by said company to the defendant to apply on the original decree in this case.”

It was to this decree the appeal was taken..

The court below declined to order the sale of the Vosburg third, as prayed for, from which refusal the defendant appealed. His appeal will be subsequently considered.

The position of the plaintiff is this: Having obtained a decree in his favor by which the deed was declared a mortgage, upon the offer to pay promptly and in cash the amount due thereon, he now declines to pay the money, and denies the power of the court to compel him to do so. He seems to be under the impression that the cause has reached a point where the court has lost its power; that the proceedings are at a dead lock, and that the only remedy left the defendant is to go into a court of law with his scire facias upon the mortgage, a writ of ejectment or action of covenant. In the meantime the land, which is chiefly valuable for its coal, is being constantly depreciated by the working of its mines.

The plaintiff has mistaken the powers of a court .of equity. It [395]*395is not so helpless as he imagines. When once it has a case within its grasp it has all the authority necessary to a full disposition of all tho questions arising therein. In doing so it has no occasion to call to its aid tho assistance of a court of law. Its remedies are plastic, and may be moulded to meet the exigencies of the case. The plaintiff having invoked this jurisdiction and obtained the relief ho sought, cannot now turn the defendant over to a court of law to obtain tho redress to which he is entitled upon the plaintiff’s own showing. The tribunal to which the latter has appealed will hold him and his property within its grasp until he does that equity which ho solemnly promised to perform.

This is no new doctrine. It was said by this court, in McGowin v. Remington, 2 Jones 63, “ that when a court of equity takes cognisance of a litigation it will dispose of every subject embraced within the circle of contest, whether the question be of remedy or of distinct yet connected topics of dispute. If the jurisdiction once attaches from the nature of one of the subjects of contest, it may embrace all of them, for equity abhors multiplicity of suits.” In Souder’s Appeal, 7 P. F. Smith 498, it was held that “ when a court of equity once obtains jurisdiction of a subject it will comprehend and decide all incidental matters necessary to enable it to make a full and final determination of the whole controversy.” Authorities might be multiplied indefinitely were it necessary.

It is the merest technicality to say that the decree of January 26th 1875 contains no direct order upon the plaintiff to pay the money. Why should it ? It was a decree against the defendant upon the plaintiff’s bill. It was obtained upon the faith of plaintiff’s offer to pay tho money. It would have been gratuitous to make a decree against him to do what he bad offered to do as a ground of his relief. His present attitude is that of one who has trifled with, if not deceived, the court.

The supplemental petition is strictly in aid of the decree. It does not seek to change it or to modify the principles upon which it was pronounced. It merely asks that it may be enforced, and that the amount ascertained to be due, a portion of which is purchase-money, may be paid. The Delaware & Hudson Canal Company, an indifferent stakeholder, has in its possession a sum of money due on the coal lease of this very land. The court below committed no error in awarding it to the appellee.

The decree is affirmed, and the appeal dismissed, at the costs of the appellant.

Morss’s Appeal.]

Much that was said in Winton’s Appeal, just decided, is applicable to this case. The present appeal was to the refusal of the court below to order a sale of the Vosburg third of the Calvin Barber tract of land. The action of the learned judge was based [396]*396upon the ruling of this court in Ashhurst et al. v. The Montour Iron Company, 11 Casey 30, where it was held that the courts in Pennsylvania have no jurisdiction in equity to decree a sale of mortgaged premises at the instance of the mortgagee.

This principle is correctly stated and is amply sustained hy the authority cited.

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97 Pa. 385, 1881 Pa. LEXIS 88, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/winton-v-morss-pa-1881.