Robinson v. Williams
Robinson v. Williams
Opinion of the Court
These two cases are so connected that the disposition of one necessarily disposes of the other, as will hereafter appear.
In Robinson et al., Trustees, v. David E. Williams et al., the original suit was commenced January 28, 1897, in the common pleas of Franklin county by Williams against DeWitt C. Postle, assignee and others, to foreclose a mortgage on the property described in the petition, and to enjoin its sale by the assignee under an order made by the probate court of the county in the matter of the assignment of Lewis F. Postle, that had been made in Union county, the residence of the assignor, August 15, 1895. The mortgage had been made January 12, 1891, by Lovegrove and wife, then owners of the land, to one Keim to secure a note of $2,000 and interest, and by him assigned for a valuable consideration to Williams. The principal and part of the interest was due at the commencement of the suit. No question is made as to the validity of the mortgage, or as to the priority of its lien on the land. After the execution of the mortgage, the mortgagors, Lovegrove and wife, on August 17,1894, sold and conveyed the land to Lewis F. Postle, who assumed the mortgage, and shortly afterwards platted the land into lots and streets, and made of it two additions to the city of Columbus. In the second addition a one-fourth of an acre was reserved. The land embraced in the streets
Afterwards on May 8, 1897, Postle, assignee, having been removed, and Robinson and McCoy appointed trustees, the latter entered their appearance to the action, and moved to dissolve the injunction on the ground that the court had no jurisdiction. This motion was overruled. They afterwards, on July 7, 1897, filed an answer, averring that the court had no jurisdiction; and that on May 5, 1897, they had
On error to the circuit court this judgment was affirmed; and error is prosecuted here to reverse the judgment on the ground that the court had no jurisdiction.
The case presents this question: Whether the common pleas had jurisdiction of the suit to foreclose the mortgage, it having been commenced after the assignment had been made in Union county? Quite general powers are conferred by section 6351, Revised Statutes, in connection with sections 6350f and g. on probate courts in administering assignments for the benefit of creditors, where they have jurisdiction of the matter of the assignment. But general as they are, they do not preclude the common pleas, in proper cases, from exercising any of its power as a court of general jurisdiction at law and in equity, when necessary to afford relief to a party that cannot be afforded in a proceeding in the probate court, or so fully and amply as right and justice requires. Dwyer v. Garlough, 31 Ohio St., 158. It is supposed that the rule of this decision has been abrogated by the act of March 24, 1891 (88 Laws, 181). It will be observed, however, that section 6350/ only empowers the court to order a sale of the assigned land free of dower, where the wife, on being made a party “elects” to take the value of her contingent right of dower in money. There is no power to compel her to do so in invitum. And it will be further observed, that section 6350<7 applies to a case only where the
It follows that the judgment in both cases should be affirmed. For, conceding that in the suit subsequently commenced by the trustees in the common pleas, the mortgagee might have obtained an order for the sale of all the land, including the streets, covered by his mortgage by filing a cross-petition and asking for a sale under his mortgage, still, as his suit .had been rightly commenced, the commencement of another suit by the trustees in the same court, however adequate the remedy as to him might have been, could not affect the jurisdiction of the court in the suit previously commenced by himself.
The superior excellence of a court of general jurisdiction like our common pleas, resides in the fact that whatever the case may be, there will not in general be a failure of justice from the want of power in the court to hear and determine. Its jurisdiction is in all cases easily determined. It possesses all the powers of a court of justice that are not expressly denied to it, or exclusively given to some other tribunal, and in all questions of doubt, jurisdiction is resolved in its favor. Judgment in both cases
Afibrmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.