Brooks v. Brooke
Brooks v. Brooke
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of this court.
Much time has been spent in discussing the question, whether this be a supplemental bill or a bill in the nature- of a bill of review, seeking to alter or amend some decree or order,
Where property is sold under a decree of a court of equity, the proceeds of sale are considered in the custody of the court; and no person, whether a party to the suit or otherwise, can maintain a suit at law for the recovery of any portion thereof, until payment of the claim thus prosecuted shall have been awarded by the court, and (according to the case of Oyster and Annan, 1 Gill and John. 450,) notice of such award, and a demand of payment, shall have been made of the trustee, or other officer in whose hands the fund may have remained, as the fiduciary agent of the court. This court, in the case of Boteler and Belt vs. State, use of Chew & Co., 8 Gill and Johnson, 360, having, in effect, declared the order in favor of the creditors of Henry M. Chew & Co. a nullity, no order of court has been passed for the payment of the judgment owned by the appellant, in virtue of his having paid it as one of its .superseders. Nor can such an order now be passed — the delinquent trustee, after wasting the fund, having died intestate, without any administration or estate on which an administration could be had. To place himself in a condition to prosecute at law, his claim against the sureties, on the trustees
The search, proved to have been made for the original bond, is, we think, sufficient evidence of its loss to warrant the interposition of a court of equity, as far as that fact would give it jurisdiction. But, in our opinion, the question of jurisdiction-does not depend upon the loss of the bond. If the bond were in existence, the jurisdiction is sustained, if sustainable at all, by the other facts in the cause.
It has been insisted, that E. M. Dorsey, the trustee, having been ordered to pay off the prior incumbrancers, such incumbrancers thereby became creditors of the fund in Dorsey’s hands, and were bound to abide its loss by Dorsey’s insolvency, so far as the residue of the proceeds of sale and the other claimants thereof, were concerned. And consequently, that the order on Mundel to pay off the prior incumbrancers with the fund to which the appellant and other subsequent incumbrancers were entitled, is erroneous. Without stopping to inquire what benefits would ultimately result to the appellees if the positions thus urged in their behalf were established 5. and whether, under the well settled principles of substitution, a Court of Chancery would not subrogate the appellant to all the rights of the prior incumbrancers, whose claims being ordered by the court to be paid by the trustee, for whom the appellees were securities, stand exempt from one of the strongest grounds of defence, which has been relied on in bar of the relief sought by the appellant; let us examine whether the incumbrancers were in the predicament which has been ascribed to them. Had they been parties to the proceedings before the court, the consequences asserted by the appellees might have been urged with much plausibility. But these incumbrancers were never before the court, nor made parties to its proceedings, and were in no wise bound to seek payment of their claims out of the proceeds of sale in the hands of the trustees, and if not paid off, might have prosecuted their liens upon the lands sold after their conveyance to the purchaser,
It has been stated by the appellees solicitor, that there was no breach of the bond in the lifetime of the trustee, he having •complied with every order of the court obligatory upon him. This statement, we conceive, is not warranted by the proofs and proceedings before us. By the original decree, under which the sale was made, the trustee was ordered to report the sale and to bring the proceeds of sale into court; the latter branch of which order he has wholly disobeyed, and thus broken the condition of his bond. For the consequences of which breach, both he and his securities are liable to be sued at law by any person who can shew himself damnified thereby, and clothed with the requisite authority to sue. A forfeiture of the bond, attended with similar consequences, occurred when the trustee Tailed to comply with the order of the court of the 26th of October, 1830, commanding him to pay off the prior incumbrances, and to bring into court the residue of the purchase money in his hands. At law, then, the securities were not only not absolved from their contract, but were liable to be sued thereon, the moment the requisite sanction to the •claims should be given by the court in which the proceedings were pending. Is it then consistent with reason or equity, that a violated contract, in full force and operation at law, should be discharged by the mere accidental circumstance of the trustee’s death, before the final adjudication of the court, upon the claims before it? But it is said, that the order of the 26th of October, 1830, to pay off prior incumbrances, is a rescission of that part of the original decree, requiring the proceeds of sale to be brought into court. This is not the fact. The funds being retained by the trustee, instead of being brought into court, no other order could well be passed, consistently with the existing condition of things. The order
But suppose, that we are wrong in sustaining, under the circumstances of this case, the jurisdiction of the Chancery Court on the ground of accident, it ought to be sustained upon that great principle in which chancery jurisdiction was originally assumed — that without it, there would be a total failure of justice, a court of law being incompetent to grant any adequate relief. This doctrine is fully supported by the Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia, in the case of Spotswood vs. Dandridge and others, 4 Munford’s Rep. 289. A case in principle not distinguishable from that before us. In Virginia, if an executor commits a devastavit, suit upon his bond, against his securities, cannot be maintained, until the devastavit against the executor be established in a suit at law. In the case cited, the executor died without any personal representation after a devastavit, but before its establishment by suit. Relief was granted against the sureties on their bond by a bill in Chancery. Speaking in reference to proving the devastavit otherwise than by a suit at law, the court say, “if this cannot be done in one tribunal, owing to its particular forms of proceeding, it may be done in another, for it is a fundamental principle, that there is no right without a remedy.” This case is cited with approbation in the case of Carow, Ex’r. of Mowatt, vs. Mowatt’s Adm’r, 2 Edwards’ Ch’y. Rep. 57, where it was decided, that an administrator committing a devastavit,
This court will sign a decree reversing, with costs, the pro forma decree of the Chancellor, and making such provision for the final adjudication of the rights of the parties in this cause as is in accordance with their agreement in the record.
DECREE REVERSED WITH COSTS AND CAUSE REMANDED.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- John Brooks v. Walter B. Brooke and James B. Belt, Adm'r. of Edward W. Belt, and T. Hodgkin, Adm'r. of Alex. H. Boteler
- Cited By
- 9 cases
- Status
- Published