Pottier v. Grant
Pottier v. Grant
Opinion of the Court
The defendants, the principal and the surety, on an injunction bond in the case of David Grant v. R. C. Hyatt and sheriff, appeal from the judgment condeming them in solido to pay the plaintiff $1314 48, the amount of general and special damages alleged to have been suffered by him by reason of said injunction.
It appears that in October, 1867, David Grant injoined tbe execution of the judgment which his partner, George MeGibbon, had confessed against the commercial firm of Grant & MeGibbon in favor of R. C. Hyatt, and that William R. Bell, tbe defendant, signed as surety the injunction bond. Before the trial of this suit R. C. Hyatt transferred to the plaintiff, H. Pottier, all his right, title and interest in and to the judgment injoined.
The injunction was subsequently dissolved in the lower court and. on appeal the judgment was affirmed by this court. 22 An. 411.
The important question is : Can the plaintiff, the transferree of the judgment injoined by tbe defendants, recover damages on the injunction bond subscribed by them in favor of R. C. Hyatt and sheriff?
On the part of the defendants it is contended that there is no privity between them and tbe plaintiff, tbe bond not being in his favor and tbe interest of Hyatt in the injunction suit, to wit: Tbe right to claim damages for the illegal ini unction, not having been transferred to the plaintiff together with tbe transfer of tbe judgment injoined. And in support of this position they cite tbe case of Tete v. Villavasa, 6 An.
For nearly two years after the plaintiff bought the judgment from Hyatt the defendants kept up the litigation of the injunction suit, restraining the plaintiff from executing his judgment and otherwise greatly damaging him. If they can escape liability to him, they will escape all liability; because Hyatt, the former owner, can not recover from them damages which he did not suffer, but which were incurred by the plaintiff. The defendants would thus be permitted to damage the owner of a judgment by the illegal exercise of the writ of injunction and incur no liability whatever on account thereof.
The case of Tete v. Villavosa, 6 An. 271, is not like the one now before the court. There the injunction was dissolved with damage» before the transfer of the original judgment by Cantrelle & Villavasa to the Ocean Insurance Company. At the time of the transfer Cantrelle & Villavasa had two judgments, one for the amount of their original demand against their judgment debtor, and the other for the amount of damages which they incurred by the illegal injunction taken out by their judgment debtor. They only transferred the original judgment. And when they sought to enforce their other judgment for damages, the judgment debtor injoined on the ground that he had settled it with the transferree of the original judgment; and that the transfer of the original judgment carried with it as an accessary the judgment for damages.
Judgment affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- H. Pottier v. David Grant and W. R. Bell
- Status
- Published