Berkey Farmers' Mutual Telephone Co. v. Sylvania Home Telephone Co.
Berkey Farmers' Mutual Telephone Co. v. Sylvania Home Telephone Co.
Opinion of the Court
In the answer filed by the defendants in error in the .court of common pleas it
The court of appeals in reversing the judgment of the common pleas court, and in rendering final judgment in favor • of defendants in error here, made the following finding: “The court finds that there is error apparent upon the record in the proceedings of said Court of Common Pleas to the prejudice of the plaintiffs in error in that, on the pleadings and record no legal foundation can exist upon which the judgment for damages entered in favor of defendants in error in this action can rest, and that substantial justice was not accomplished in the entry of a judgment for defendants in error and in that substantial justice under the provisions of Section 11364 can only be accomplished, by a final judgment in favor of plaintiffs in error.”
The reason for holding that no legal foundation existed upon which the judgment for damages in the action on the injunction bond could rest is not given in the journal entry. But in its opinion the court of appeals say that in view of the judgment of the supreme court in The Ashley Tri-County Mutl. Tel. Co. v. The New Ashley Tel. Co., 92 Ohio St., 336, decided July 2, 1915, the plaintiff in the injunction suit, The Sylvania Home Telephone
Under the provisions of the statutory bond upon which the action before us here was founded, the defendants in error obligated themselves in the sum of $1,000 to pay plaintiffs in error the damages they might sustain by reason of the injunction in the action, if it were finally decided that the injunction ought not to have been granted. As we have seen, it was admitted by the answer that the injunction had been issued, that the bond had been given, and that the injunction had been dissolved by the court of appeals. It seems to be well settled that the dissolution of an injunction is conclusive that it was
In the case before us the principal and sureties on the injunction bond were made parties defendant. The language used by Owen, J., in Braiden v. Mercer, 44 Ohio St., 339, 343, is pertinent here: “An undertaking in an injunction proceeding is conditioned to secure the party enjoined the damages he may sustain if it be finally decided that the injunction ought not to have been granted. It has never been supposed that the sureties in an action against them could be heard to say that they were strangers to the injunction proceeding and that the decision of the court that the injunction ought not to have been granted should be disregarded and that question again litigated.” In other words, the rights and liabilities of the parties to the injunction bond, the obligees on the. one hand and the principal and sureties on the other, were fixed when it was finally determined that the in
In State, ex rel. The Sylvania Home Tel. Co., v. Richards et al., 94 Ohio St., 287, decided May 29, 1916, one of the defendants in error here, The Sylvania Home Telephone Company, applied to this court for a writ of mandamus to compel the court of appeals of Lucas county to certify the record in the injunction proceeding to this court, its application being based upon the ground that the judgment of that court of appeals was in conflict with judgments pronounced upon the same question by the courts of appeals of Delaware and Morrow counties. The judgment of the court of appeals of Delaware county was the judgment affirmed by this court in the Ashley case, supra, and was affirmed before the application for the writ of mandamus was filed. The writ was denied for the reason stated in the second proposition of the syllabus. It is said in the opinion, at page 295: “It must be kept in mind that in each case the jurisdiction of the courts is invoked to adjudicate the rights of the parties in that particular controversy; and when a judgment has been rendered in due course by a court of final jurisdiction the parties should not be left in doubt as to its finality or be led to speculate
It is equally true that where a court of appeals renders, a judgment and subsequently the supreme court in a case between other litigants involving the same question renders a different judgment, the court of appeals cannot open up the judgment ithe case decided by it and have relitigated a matter that had been finally disposed of. In Michael v. American Natl. Bank, 84 Ohio St., 370, it was held that where a cause has proceeded to trial and final judgment, a court of equity will not vacate or open up the judgment and grant a new trial of the same issue determined in the former hearing, in the absence of fraud or undue advantage by the prevailing party. No claim is made here that there was fraud or undue advantage, and if a court of equity cannot interfere, as was held in the Michael case, it certainly cannot be seriously contended that in an action at law for damages on an injunction bond theré is any authority for opening up the judgment rendered in the proceeding where the injunction bond was given.
In the journal entry in the court of appeals it is recited that “substantial justice was not accomplished in the entry of a judgment for defendants in error and in that substantial justice under the
Judgment of the court of appeals reversed and that of the common pleas court affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.