Miller v. Hays
Miller v. Hays
Opinion of the Court
Suit by Miller, the appellant, against I-Iays on an arbitration bond. The court below sustained a demurrer to the complaint and -rendered final judgment for’ costs for the defendant. Was this ruling correct? This is the only question in the case.
The bond sued on, after reciting that the parties agreed to submit all matters in dispute between them to the arbitrament of certain persons named, bound them, each to the
We think the court did light in sustaining the demurrer to the complaint. We are not aware of any principle of law justifying a successful party in a suit to claim to recover of his adversary his attorney’s fees, or his personal expenses in attending court. This court so held in Comegys v. The State Bank, 6 Ind. 357, and Davis et al. v. Crow, 7 Blackf. 129.
Billingsly v. Dean, 11 Ind. 331, to which we are referred by the appellant, was a suit upon a promissory note, in which it was stipulated that the maker should pay all attorney’s fees and costs incurred in its collection by suit, and this court held that the attorney’s fees'were properly taxed to the defendant under the express stipulation in the note to that effect. That case is not in point here.
Davis et al. v. Crow, supra, was an action on a replevin
We think the principle announced in that case is correct, and is decisive of the question presented in this ease. There is no complaint that the plaintiff did not recover his proper costs in defending the suits on the notes referred to in the complaint, and we must presume that if the expense of procuring a transcript of the judgment on the award became a proper item of costs in those cases, it was properly included in the costs recovered.
The judgment is affirmed, with costs.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.