Garden City Co. v. Detroit Fidelity & Surety Co.
Garden City Co. v. Detroit Fidelity & Surety Co.
Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the court was delivered by
This action was a sequel to that of The Continental & C. T. & S. Bank v. Garden City Co., 123 Kan. 659, 256 Pac. 983, where the ownership of an electric transmission line located on a public highway running north from Garden City into Scott county was in dispute.
The line had been constructed by a predecessor in title of the Garden City Company for the purpose of delivering electrical power
“That the appellees herein, and each and all of them together with their agents, officers, servants and employees, being enjoined and restrained during the pendency of this appeal from tearing down, dismantling, junking, or removing the transmission line in controversy, in this action, or any part thereof, from its present location, or from removing, taking away, or appropriating to their own use, elsewhere any part or portion of the material of which the same is or was constructed, or from in any way interfering with, harming, altering, or changing the said transmission line, or any of the appurtenances thereunto belonging so that the value of the security covered by appellants’ deed of trust be in any way lessened, decreased, or diminished.”
The bond provided—
“Now, therefore, we, Continental Trust and Savings Bank and William F. Kopf, as trustee, as principal, and the Detroit Fidelity and Surety Company, as surety, hereby undertakes in the sum of $5,000 (five thousand dollars) that the said appellants shall pa/ the said appellees any damages that they may sustain by reason of the issuing of said order if it shall be finally determined that said injunction ought not to be granted.”
This injunction was in effect until the judgment was affirmed June 11, 1927, during which period the line was repeatedly meddled with by thieves, and considerable portions of it were stolen and carried away. At the expenditure of money and effort some of the stolen wire was recovered by the Garden City Company. To recoup itself for the loss and damage occasioned by these larcenies this action was begun against the surety on the injunction bond. The pertinent facts and legal questions were developed by the pleadings. The evidence did not develop much conflict of testimony. Plaintiff’s evidence tended to show thefts of wires, poles, insulators and the like, of the value of $1,641.25, and expenses incurred in “running down the various thieves and recovering part of the loot,” amounting to $59.55. (We were advised in the oral argument that seven of these thieves had been apprehended and convicted and are now
The jury returned a verdict for plaintiff in the sum of $800 and answered two special questions:
“Q. 1. If you award plaintiff damages in any amount state what act or acts of the defendant surety company caused the persons who removed or damaged portions pf the transmission line, poles, wires and equipment to do so. A. By not properly protecting the property while under the jurisdiction of the court.
“Q. 2. If you find for the plaintiff, what amount do you credit to defendant for property and materials recovered by plaintiff after the thefts and damage herein complained of? A. $63.03.”
Judgment was entered accordingly and defendant appeals, contending that the loss and damage caused by theft of the property during the time the injunction was in effect were not within the terms of the injunction bond. The argument is advanced that the injunctive order restraining the plaintiff “from tearing down, dismantling, junking or moving the transmission line” did not change the status of the line in any way, and that the order of court only preserved the property in the same condition it had been for more than three years prior to the issuance of the injunction. To support this argument the appellant invokes the well-known rule of law that only such damages are recoverable-as aré the natural and proximate result of the injunction durihg the time it was in force. It is also argued , with considerable ^plausibility that the appellant bondsman ought not to be held liable for the wrongdoing of third parties' — the thieves who pillaged the line — and that the possibility of loss and damage to the line by theft was no greater or different while the injunction was in force than before its issue or after its dissolution.
On the other hand, the nature, situation and condition of the property must be considered. The transmission line for the most part was situated on the public road. It was not practical to safeguard it from thieves except by doing what the plaintiff had set about — taking up the line and removing it to a place of security until needed for use elsewhere. If the line had been on private property it might have been practicable to have prevented trespassers from coming on the premises to meddle with it. On the public road, however, the line in its partially wrecked condition, and composed as it was of highly valuable materials, was a standing temptation
Some cases pro and con are called to our attention as being somewhat analogous to the one before us. In Gobbi v. Dileo, 58 Ore. 14, 34 L. R. A., n. s., 951, the action was on an injunction bond to secure the plaintiff against damages because of his being temporarily restrained from cutting, removing or disposing of certain cordwood, and during the time the temporary restraining order was in force 171 cords were stolen. The court held that there was no liability on the bond. In the opinion it was said:
“The first question suggested is, In whose possession and at whose risk was the wood after the alleged service of the injunction? . . . And the order signed in this case only restrained defendants from doing certain acts, viz., that they desist from cutting, removing or disposing of the wood. It could not have the effect to transfer the title or possession of the wood to plaintiff. . . . And the possession remained after the alleged service of the writ where it was at that time, unaffected by the writ. The wood was cut from the land, the title to which was in dispute, and practically conceded to be in the possession of defendant in the writ, and the wood remained on the land. Barton v. Fisk, 30 N. Y. 156, cited by plaintiff, is not in point, as the effect of the injunction there was to change the possession of the property from defendant to plaintiff, and the same is true in the case of Alexander v. Colcord, 85 Ill. 323. . . . The wood still remained in defendant’s possession, and, if removed by others, it was not plaintiff’s fault.” (pp. 17, 18.)
In Burley T. G. Co-Op. Ass’n v. Pennebaker Home, 221 Ky. 718,
One of our own recent cases, Baker v. Craig, 127 Kan. 811, 817, 275 Pac. 216, among other complicated features, included an action on an injunction bond in which a claim was made for the value of certain well-boring tools which -had been stolen while the injunction was in force. Because other features in the case required extended treatment, this particular point was disposed of without discussion by a simple' ruling that the injunction bond covered the stolen property.
We conclude that the judgment of the district court was'Correct; and it is affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- The Garden City Company v. The Detroit Fidelity and Surety Company
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