Columbus, Hocking Valley & Toledo Ry. Co. v. Burke
Columbus, Hocking Valley & Toledo Ry. Co. v. Burke
Opinion of the Court
The case gives rise to the following questions, and, if any of them, cannot be
1. Is the award of the arbitrators the decision contemplated by the undertakings ?
2. Did the dismissal of the action by the consent of the parties estop the defendants from insisting on the terms of their undertakings?
3. Does the provision in the agreement of submission, that its execution should not impair the liability of the defendants on either of the undertakings, preclude them from insisting that it has not been judicially decided that the injunction ought not to have been granted ?
4. Was the dissolution of the injunction after the award and the dismissal of the action, such a decision ?
We will consider these questions in their order; and shall, hereafter, speak of these undertakings as bonds, and for convenience, use the singular, as what is true of one is true as to both.
1. No action can be maintained on the bond except in accordance with its terms. The liability of the principal and sureties is the same — it is on the bond; and no action on it will lie against the principal where it would not lie against the sureties. This may be regarded as settled law. In Bien v. Heath, 12 How. U. S., 168, it is said by Taney, C. J., that, “In a proceeding upon a bond, the liability of the principal cannot be extended beyond that of the sureties,” and the bond there under consideration was an injunction bond. This case was followed and approved by this court in Krug v. Bishop, 44 Ohio St., 221. See, also, in this connection, the cases of Palmer v. Foley, 71 N. Y., 106, and Johnson v. Elwood, 82 N. Y., 362, 365.
And this presents the question' whether the award of the arbitrators is the decision required by the terms of the bond, in an action on it for damages. We think it is not. The decision contemplated by the bond, without doubt, had reference to a decision by the court on the merits of the ease, in which the action was pending. It was required and giyen in pursuance of the statute, section 5576, Revised Statutes, and could have had reference to no other decision by any known rule of construction. There is a marked difference, as we shall presently show, between such a decision and the award of the arbitrators in this case. There has been much discussion,, as to whether the arbitration had, was a common law or statutory one. If it were material to decide this we should be compelled to hold that it was a common law arbitration, Western Female Seminary v. Blair, 1 Disney, 370; Estes v. Phillips, 2 Superior Court Reporter, 3; Childs v. Updyke, 9 Ohio St., 333; Swasey v. Laycock, 1 Handy, 335; Brown v. Kincaid, Wright, 37.
These cases show that common law arbitration exists in this state, notwithstanding the statute; and if the arbitration had in this instance, was not such, it would be difficult to define the difference in the two methods. If there is any, it must be in the fact that one is made under, and substantially conforms to, the statute. But the submis
This evidently' was not a matter of oversight— it was according to the deliberate purpose of the parties — they bound themselves to stand to and abide the award, whether right or wrong, the obligation being assumed without qualification. It was not made a rule of court, for it was not the agreement that it should. The cases cited show, that, as a statutory award, it would have been of no avail, for want of conformity to the statute; and that the only way effect could be given it, was to treat it as a common law award, as was done by the parties on the award being made. The principle of common law awards- was preserved to save such as could not be given effect under the statute, and many awards have been sustained by the courts, on the ground that they conformed to the liberal principles of the common law, where they could not have been sustained as awards made under the statute. Childs v. Updyke, supra.
But the question here is, not what the arbitration had should be called, but whether the decision by the arbitrators is the decision, or its equivalent, required by the bond in an action on it. In a decision by the court the law requires that it shall conform to the law and the facts of the case, if it do not, by taking the proper steps, its judgment may be reversed by the proper tribunal at the suit of the party aggrieved. But such is not the case as to the award made by the arbitrators in this instance, under the agreement of submission between the parties. It is true that the issues of law and fact between the parties in the case were
2. It is, however, claimed that the plaintiff, after obtaining the injunction, voluntarily dismissed its action, and is thereby estopped from insisting on the terms of the bond; and a large number of authorities are cited in support of this proposition. We have carefully examined these cases, and see no reason to question the decision in any of them. When a plaintiff obtains an injunction by giving’ a bond to answer for such damages as may be caused the defendant by its allowance, and, afterward, voluntarily and without the consent of the defendant, dismisses his action, there is much reason for holding that he should be estopped to say, in an action on the bond, for the recovery of damages, that it has not been decided that the injunction ought not to have been granted. For, in such case, he, by his own act, has prevented the defendant from having such a decision. And such is the substance of the holding in the various
In Prefontaine v. Richards, 47 Hun., 418, Prefontaine being about to foreclose a chattel mortgage for $1,000, given him by Richards, the latter secured an injunction claiming that Pref ontaine owed him $923.00. The action came on for trial, when Richards and Pref ontaine met and settled the matters in difference, agreeing that Richards was indebted to Pref ontaine in the sum of $571.00 and that judgment might be entered against Richards for that amount and with costs. It was also stipulated that the injunction should be dismissed. Accordingly, judgment for the amount named was
Benedict v. Benedict, 15 Hun., 305, was an appeal from an order directing a reference to ascertain damages. The suit had been brought for a reconveyance of lands on the claim of a verbal agreement, that it was to be reconveyed if not paid for, and an injunction had been granted restraining the defendant from incumbering the land or collecting rents. It was referred to a master, who found the fact of the verbal agreement, but held the same void under the statute of frauds, but also held the plaintiff had a lien for the purchase money and ordered a sale, but ruled and decided nothing as to the injunction. The court reversed the order because no final decision had been made authoizing a reference; and used this language: “According to the condition of the undertaking, there must be a final decision — that is, one made at the determination of the action; and the decision, in order to authorize an action on the undertaking, must be in effect that the plaintiff was not at the time of obtaining the injunction, entitled thereto, citing cases. See, also, Weeks v. Southwick, 12 How. Pr. Rep., 170; and particularly, Palmer v. Folley, 71 N. Y., 106, cited by Miller, J., in Johnson v. Elwood, supra.
In Myers v. Parker, 6 Ohio St., 505, it was held, that no action could be maintained on an appeal bond where, by its terms, the liability of the obligors was made to depend on the judgment of the
These cases, and many similar ones, all illustrate the principle heretofore stated, that no recovery can be had on a bond or undertaking except in strict accordance with its terms — there must be a showing that-it has been determined by the court, that the injunction should not have been granted; and, also, that any agreement between the parties, subsequent to the allowance of the injunction, by which the action is dismissed and the injunction dissolved, is not sufficient in an action on the bond, where there has been no judicial determination that the injunction should not have been allowed; and, consequently, an award made by arbitrators selected by the parties, and in no way subject to the control of the court, cannot have that effect, for it only binds the parties as an agreement, not as a,judgment rendered by the court, in the exercise of its jurisdiction, upon the case made by the parties and submitted to it. The bond contemplated such a judgment, and none other.
In an application for a rehearing it has been strenuously insisted, that there is nothing in the record to show that the case was dismissed by consent; and, that the point is a new one, not presented below, and, for the first time, presented here in the opinion of the court. This is certainly a grave mistake of counsel. It is presented in the answer of the company and not denied by the reply. The averment of the answer being “that it, ” the entry, “was by agreement of said, parties and at- the instance of said plaintiffs,” entered of record in the case. This is not denied by the reply, and could not have been without contradicting
3. The defendants in error also rely on the provision in the agreement of submission,' that its execution should not “in any wise impair the liability ” of the obligors on the bond. But this stipulation cannot be so construed as to impair any of the rights of the obligors. To insist on the terms of the bond is one of their rights, and does not impair their liability. It was wisely inserted, as without this provision it might have been contended, and in fact has been, that the submission to arbitration of itself worked a discontinuance of the action. This has been held by many respectable courts, in the case of a common law submission. Morse on Arbitration, 267; Mooers v. Allen, 35 Maine, 276; Bigelow v. Goss, 5 Wis., 421; Larkin v. Robbins, 2 Wend., 503; Green v. Patchen, 13 Wend., 293.
4. As to the dissolution of the injunction, this we think, is of no avail to the plaintiffs, in their action on .the bond, for several reasons: (1) It was a useless act and determined nothing. The temporary injunction perished with the dismissal of the action, so that there was nothing to dissolve. It was a mere incident to the action and could not survive it. Krug v. Bishop, supra; Trustees v. Mc-
Judgments of the circuit court and of the common pleas, reversed; and judgment for the defendants below upon the pleadings and the admitted facts in the case.
Dissenting Opinion
(dissenting).
I concede that under the conditions of the bonds, it was the right of the railway company to have the question as to whether or not the injunction ought to have been granted, decided by the court, and that this right would continue until waived by agreement of the parties.
The right to have the court decide whether the injunction ought to have been granted or not, is a right which may be waived by the parties and chang’ed by contract. In civil eases any right may usually be waived unless otherwise provided by statute. A party whose insured property is destroyed by fire has a light to have the value thereof ascertained by a court and jury, yet this right may be waived by agreement of the parties in the policy, to the effect that such value shall be fixed by appraisers or arbitrators, and such agreements are held valid and conclusive. Hamilton v. Insurance Company, 136 U. S., 242.
The rig’ht to a trial by jury may be waived, and even the unconstitutionality of statute may be waived. Tone v. Columbus, 39 Ohio St., 281.
A decision of the merits of the case is necessarily a decision as to whether the injunction ought to have been granted or not, because injunctions ought to be granted only in cases wherein the plaintiff succeeds on the merits. ■ A decision on the merits in favor of the defendant, is a decision that the injunction ought not to have been granted. An injunction is always granted to remain in force until otherwise ordered, and when the case is decided in favor of the defendant it is by force of the judgment of its own vigor otherwise ordered, without saying anything about the injunction or the dissolution thereof, although the usual and better practice is to dissolve the injunction by specific order in the judgment entry. Such is the effect of the holding by this court in Roberts v. Dust, 4 Ohio St., 502. In that case there was a decision on the merits of the ease in favor of the defendant and nothing was said as to the injunction, and yet this court sustained a recovery on the injunction bond. In Hoyt v. Carter, 7 Howard Pr., 140, it was held that a dismissal of the action by the court, was of its own force a disposition of the injunction.
The submission was in writing, and the question as to whether thereby the matter of the injunction was submitted to the arbitrators, was a question of law to be determined by a construction of the legal effect of the submission itself, and this construction could not be varied, altered or changed by the averments or. admissions of the parties in their pleadings. Properly construed the submis
A decision by a court having been thus waived, and a final decision procured by a board of arbitrators agreed upon, it can not be fairly said that the question as to whether the injunction should have been granted or not is still open and undecided. The contracts contained in the bond and in the submission, were as to the principals, two written contracts as to the same case and same subject-matter, and should be construed together, and when so construed the submission modified the conditions of the bond, to the extent that the whole merits of the case, including the injunction, should be decided by the arbitrators, and by the award this question was fully decided, and it matters not to this court whether it was decided right or wrong. It was just as competent for the parties to stop with the decision of the question by the arbitrators, ;as to stop with the decision of the common pleas court. A judgment need not be reviewed and passed upon by a higher court to make it binding. A release of errors and the right of appeal, while
In none of the cases cited was there an agreement that the submission, award and its performance, should not impair the liability of the plaintiff on the injunction bond, and for that reason those cases are not applicable here.
After the award of the arbitrators was made, the case was disposed of in the court of common pleas by the entry of the following judgment:
“This day came the parties by their attorneys, and by consent showed to the court that on the 11th day of July, 1888, the parties submitted all the facts and issues joined in the pleadings in this case to the arbitrament and award of James C. Carter, Esq., of New York, and E. W. Kittredge and Lawrence Maxwell, Jr., Esqs., of Cincinnati, Ohio, and that said arbitrators having heard the parties and their counsel and all the evidence that they had to submit in the case, and
It will be noticed by reading- this final judgment entry, that the fact of submission and the result of the award, were shown to the court by consent of the parties, that there was an agreement as to the final record and the use of the files in the case, that the dismissal of the action was by the plaintiff, in pursuance of the submission and award, that nothing- appears in the entry as to whether the defendant consented to the
There are many cases which hold that if the case is settled or disposed of by agreement of the parties, that an action on the injunction bond cannot be sustained; and a dismissal of the action by mutual consent of both parties may be included in the principle of such cases, but I doubt it. By the dismissal, the plaintiff concedes that he has no cause of action against the defendant, and where there is no cause of action there can be no cause for an injunction. The defendant, by consenting, agrees with the plaintiff that there is no cause of action, or cause for injunction in favor of the plaintiff against the defendant. The legal effect of such dismissal is, therefore, the equivalent of a determination by the court, upon the confession of the parties, that there existed no cause of action and that the injunction ought not to have been granted. To shield a plaintiff from an action on the bond, the dismissal must be in the nature of a compromise, and that fact must appear of record.
I think that when closely examined, none of the cases conflict with this theory, and if any of them do, I should refuse to follow them, because they cannot be sustained on principle.
But in the case under consideration, it does not even appear that the dismissal was by consent or agreement of the parties. The record of the final judgment entry shows that the railway company itself .dismissed the action. The reason that it gives for the dismissal is not that the defendants consented thereto, but it is ‘ Hn picrsuance of said submission and a/wa/rd.” This is the only reason disclosed by the record, and we can not look out
'Suppose that upon a trial of the case to the court upon the merits, the court should find in favor of the defendant, and he should accept such decision in his favor and join with the plaintiff in putting on a journal entry dismissing the case. If the judgment entrj in such case should recite that the court found the facts and equities in favor of the defendant, and that thereupon the plaintiff in pursuance of such findings dismissed his action, it could not be said that defendant consented to such dismissal, and that he was thereby precluded from sustaining an action on the injunction bond. Such construction of the record is not sustained by any of the cases cited, and is in conflict with all rules of construction as applied to judgments. The plain words of the judgment entry must be disregarded in order to extort therefrom a mutual consent of the parties to such dismissal.
The record, as well as the submission, shows that proceedings for the vacation of the temporary injunction were pending, and both parties agreed ■
The latter part of the judgment entry purports
This is on the face of it, and by its very words and effect, a decision by the court' vacating, dissolving and dismissing the injunction; and by all the authorities this is held to be in effect deciding that the injunction ought not to have been granted. Such an order of the court is upon the merits of the injunction, and not as in Krug v. Bishop, 44 Ohio St., 221, cited in the opinion of the majority, where, as shown by the judgment entry, the dismissal was for the reason that the plaintiff refused to obey the order of the court requiring him to bring in new parties. In that case the judgment entry showed on its face that the dismissal was not upon the merits, while in this case the judgment entry shows that it was upon the merits.
The actions taken by the parties and by the court, all take place before the judgment entry is prepared, and the judgment stands as a whole, and all therein expressed as having taken place at the same time. It cannot be held in construing judgments that what appears in the beginning or in the middle of the entry, took place in point óf time anterior to what appears in the latter part of the judgment entry. The judgment for costs at the end of the entry is, in point of time, as early as the appearance of the parties at the beginning, when the whole entry purports to be of the same day, as in this case.
A judgment is a unit. Buckingham v. Bank, 21
The dismissal by the plaintiff, and the dissolution of the injunction by the court, occurred at one and the same instant, and as a matter of legal construction it cannot be said that the dissolution of the injunction by the court was a useless act and determined nothing, nor that the temporary injunction perished with the dismissal of the action so that there was nothing to dissolve. As the dissolution of the injunction by the court was as early in point of time as the dismissal of the action by the plaintiff, it cannot be said that the dismissal had any effect whatever upon the injunction. The injunction was dissolved by the same act of the court and at the same moment of time that the dismissal by the plaintiff was made effective by leave of the court in permitting the dismissal.
The only dismissal of an action which a plaintiff has power to make, either in vacation or term time without leave of the court, is a dismissal without prejudice. All other dismissals are required to be upon the merits, and upon the adjudication of the court. Section 5314, Revised Statutes. The dismissal in question was not without prejudice, and was therefore upon the merits. The submission and award were upon the merits, and the dismissal was, “in pursuance of said submission and award,” and was therefore also upon the merits.
That the dismissal in question could not be made by plaintiff without the permission of the . court seems to be conceded by the opinion of the majority when in speaking of the dismissal it is said:
In such case the defendant has an opportunity to insist that before the dismissal is had the court determine whether the injunction ought to have
To’ depart from the old forms in this regard, and hold that a judgment of a court dissolving an injunction does not decide and determine that the injunction ought not to have been granted, is in the nature of judicial legislation on a vital point of practice. In rendering judgment upon a trial on the merits the usual form has always been to provide for a dissolution of the injunction after that part of the judgment entry which is. in favor of the defendant on the merits. As well might it be held in such cases, as in this one, that the temporary injunction perished with the decision of the case on the merits in favor of the defendant, that there was nothing to dissolve, that the temporary, injunction could not survive the decision of the merits, and that therefore the question as to whether the injunction ought to have been granted or not was left undetermined.
But as a final reason for disregarding the judgment of the court as to the dissolution of the in
After setting out in its answer the said submission and award, the railway company says, “that no proceedings were had upon said award except as follows: “ That on or about the 13th day of November, 1888, in pursuance of said award and by reason of the same adjudging that said plaintiff should dismiss its said action, as aforesaid, the following order was, by agreement of said parties and at the instance of said plaintiff, duly entered of records in said court of common pleas of Licking county, as and for the final entry in said action, the same being the order partially set forth in the petition in this action, to-wit:” Then follows and is set out in full the final judgment entry as the same is hereinbefore set out. Then the answer states, in substance that said order was made in consequence of said award and only for the purpose of carrying into effect the decision thereof that plaintiff should dismiss its said action, that the part of said order dissolving said injunction was added merely for the formal dissolution of said injunction, which dissolution necessarily resulted from said dismissal of the action by the plaintiff, as incidental thereto, that said award was not submitted to the court, was not passed upon by the court, and that the question as fco whether or not said injunction was properly allowed was never in any way submitted to or considered by the court. To this answer thus con-
The copy of the judgment set out in the answer, and which could not be varied or changed by averment, admission or, proof, showed that the question as to the dissolution of the injunction was on motion ordered and adjudged dissolved, vacated and dismissed. This conclusively shows submission to, and consideration by the court, and that part of the answer which is to the contrary is not admitted by the reply, but is denied by the general denial at the end thereof. The general admissions in the reply are qualified by the words “except as set out in said answer. ” And in said answer we find set out the full judgment entry which shows that there was both a motion and an adjudication as to the injunction by the court. The "judgment entry says that “upon motion it is ordered and adjudged that the injunction be dissolved. ” It could be ordered and adjudged by the court only. No one else could order and adjudge. Unless the record can be falsified and impeached, it must follow that the said ordering and adjudging was by the court and not by the parties.
The force and effect of such judgment can not be cut down, enlarged, or in anywise changed by an averment or admission in the pleading, or proof upon- the trial. Such is the uniform holding of
This last ease involved the construction of a statute in which it was claimed there was an error and mistake, and that the intention of the legislature was different from what appeared on the face of the statute. Averments to that effect were made in the petition, to which there was a demurrer. In the opinion appears the following: “The.demurrer does not admit the truth of the allegation as to the error or mistake, nor as to the intention of the legislature.” The syllabus concurred in by the whole court is as follows : “The force and legal effect of a statute cannot be altered or changed by averment in a pleading.”
A judgment stands upon the same plane as a statute, and when the whole judgment is set out in a pleading its force and effect can not be altered or changed by averment or admission in such pleading. In such case no averment or proof can give to a judgment a character which, on its face, it has not, and no admission can take from it the character which, on its face, it has. The force and legal effect must be determined by the judgment and record alone, unaided by averment, admission or proof.
Again, to destroy the force and effect which this judgment has on its face, by saying that the court took no judicial action in the dissolution of the injunction, is to attack and impeach the judgment in a collateral proceeding, which it is well known can not be done. The force and effect of the judg
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.