McKee v. Pope
McKee v. Pope
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
The petition in this case sets out three separate and distinct causes of action:
1. That the defendant, Pope, was indebted to McKee in the sum of $500, by note dated the 1st day of January, 1853, payable twelve months thereafter.
3. That Pope had subsequently executed amortgage upon the same slave, and upon some other property, to Burdett and Kinnaird, to secure certain liabilities they had incurred for him; that the slave was not worth more than McKee’s debt and interest, and would not sell for more than enough to satisfy the same; that Pope is insolvent, and unless plaintiff could receive the hire of the negro, (worth about $30, or $35 a year,) a portion of his debt will be lost; that no part of his debt has been paid, and that he is entitled to the immediate possession of the slave. He therefore prays judgment for his debt, judgment for foreclosure of the mortgage, and a sale of the slave to satisfy the same, and also for an order to deliver to him the immediate possession of the slave.
McKee having filed the appropriate affidavit, sued out an order for the delivery of the slave, and thereupon the defendants, Pope, Burdett, and Kinnaird, together with Letcher as their surety, executed a covenant by which they “undertake and are bound to the c plaintiff, Geo. R. McKee, in the sum of eleven hun- ‘ dred and thirty dollars, that the defendants Thomas ‘ W. Pope, Joshua Burdett, and William H. Kinnaird, ‘ shall perform the judgment of the court in this ace tion.”
The defendants having failed to answer, the petition, it was taken for confessed against them, and a judgment was rendered, first, against Pope alone for the amount of the note, with interest from its maturity till paid, and costs; secondly, that Pope’s equity of redemption in the slave he foreclosed, and that she be sold by the commissioner, on the terms prescribed, the proceeds of the sale to be applied to the satisfaction of McKee’s debt.
The slave was sold under this judgment, McKee becoming the purchaser at the-price of $400, leaving a balance still due upon his judgment on the note. Execution against Pope having been returned “no property found,” áse., a rule afterwards issued at the instance of McKee, against all the obligors in the bond, requiring them to show cause why judgment thereon should not be entered against them. To this rule the defendants (except Pop.e,) responded, insisting that they had caused the slave to be delivered to the commissioners in pursuance of the judgment of the court, and were thereby discharged from all further liability upon the bond.
On final hearing the court discharged the rule, and from that judgment McKee has appealed to-this court, insisting that, by the plain and unambiguous terms of the bond, the defendants were liable to him for the whole amount of his judgment against Pope, upon the note of the latter, less the amount realized by the sale of the slave under the same judgment.
And the only question for us to determine, upon the state of case as presented by the record, is whether the appellees are liable as thus contended for by the appellant, or whether their liability is restricted to such judgment as might have been rendered, in this action, for the delivery of the slave.
There was obviously a misjoinder of the several causes of action in the petition, under the rules prescribed by the Civil Code, sections 111 to 114, inclusive. They do not each affect all the parties to the action, cannot be properly prosecuted by the same kind of proceedings, and do not all belong to either one of the classes designated by sub-sections 1 to 7, inclusive. It is true that all objection to the misjoinder must be deemed to have been waived, no exceptions having been taken in the proper mode, or at the proper time, and the misjoinder is referred to here for no other purpose than to explain the cause of much -of the difficulty and confusion in which the case is apparently involved.
Suppose this had been merely an ordinary action against Pope, to recover the debt due on the note, and the appellees had executed this bond at the instance of the officer serving the summons, "would it be seriously contended that it would have imposed any liability whatever upon the obligors, for the
In an action to recover the possession of personal property the judgment, if for the plaintiff, must be for the delivery of the property, if to be had, and if not, for the value thereof, and damages for the detention of the same; and this is the only judgment which the appellees, by the terms of their bond, undertook to perform. If such judgment had been rendered in this case can it be doubted that a delivery of the slave, and payment of the damages for detention by the appellees, would have been a complete discharge of their obligation, whatever might have been the amount recovered against Pope on his note? If not, and if three separate judgments had been rendered according to the prayer of the petition, the appellees, would, on the principles contended for, have been bound for the performance of all of them?
Our conclusion, therefore is, that the appellees were liable, upon their bond, only for such judgment as might have been rendered by the court on the appellants claim for the immediate possession of the slave, and that its obligatory effect cannot be regarded as having been so enlarged or extended by the misjoinder in the same action, of a claim arising upon contract, as to comprehend the judgment rendered on the latter cquse of action. This conclusion is sustained by the long established and well settled rules of construction, which are too well understood to require repetition here; and by the obvious reason and justice of the case.
The judgment is affirmed.
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