Morris v. Dillard
Morris v. Dillard
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
This was a writ of error to the decree of the inferior court of chancery.
A judgment at law had been obtained against Merrit Dillard, one of the defendant’s in error, and the execution thereon was levied upon a slave, his property. The friends of Dillard’s wife, who is another defendant in error, being desirous to relieve her necessitous circumstances, and prevent the sale to a stranger, of the slave, which was a family servant, contributed a sufficient amount, and caused the slave to be purchased at the sale, and given to her by deed. Other judgments were subsequently obtained against M. Dillard, which as the bill charges, appear to have been transferred to Wright. An execution on one of these judgments was levied upon the above-mentioned slave, which was purchased at the sale by Jones, as charged, in collusion with Wright, for Wright himself, to whom Jones delivered him on the day of the sale. The bill prays for a delivery of the slave to Dillard’s wife, that her title to the prop
Multifariousness in a bill, is defined by Story, (Eq. Pl. 224,) to be the improperly joining in one bill distinct matters, and thereby confounding them, as for example, the demand of several matters of distinct natures against several defendants in the same bill. A demurrer for multifariousness will hold only where the plaintiff claims several matters of different natures, but when one general right is claimed by the bill, though the defendants have separate and distinct rights, a demurrer will not hold. Mitf. Ch. Pl. 182. The result extracted from the cases on the subject is stated by Story (Eq. Pl. 409,) to be, that where there is a common interest in the plaintiffs, and a common liability in the defendants, different claims may be united in the same bill. But what is more familiarly understood by multifariousness, as applied to a bill, is where a party is brought as a defendant upon a record, with a large portion of which, and of the case made by which, he has no connection whatsoever. Story Eq. Pl. 407.
The objects of this bill are the recovery of the slave by Dillard ’s wife, and the quieting of the- title in her, and the hire of the slave while in the possession of Wright. The question is now between the purchaser at sheriff’s sale, and a claimant of the slave. The title of M. Dillard, if any he had, has already been sold, and unless he becomes possessed of it, under a new consideration, it cannot be again sold under the same judgment. The plaintiffs in that judgment have neither legally or equitably any interest in the subject-matter and result of the suit. The purchaser of the slave at sheriff’s sale derived his title not from those plaintiffs, but he purchased the title of M. Dillard, whatever it might be, with notice of the claim of Dillard’s wife.
The decree of the Vice Chancellor is reversed, the demurrer allowed as to Ethel S. Morris, and the cause remanded for further proceedings.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Ethel S. Morris v. Merrit Dillard, et uxor
- Status
- Published