Complete Building Show Co. v. Albertson
Complete Building Show Co. v. Albertson
Opinion of the Court
The jurisdiction of the court of appeals is now conferred only by Section 6, Article IV of the State Constitution. In the trial of cases on appeal its jurisdiction is thereby limited to chancery cases and can neither be enlarged nor curtailed by the general assembly. Cincinnati Polyclinic v. Balch, 92 Ohio St., 415, and Wagner v. Armstrong, 93 Ohio St., 443.
The court of appeals refused to entertain jurisdiction of this case and dismissed the appeal. The only question therefore presented by the record is whether this case is a chancery case and appealable to the court of appeals.
In discussing the question by which the extent of equity jurisdiction is to be tested and practically determined, it is stated in 1 Pomeroy’s Equity Jurisprudence (3 ed.), Section 62, that “The question is * * * whether the circumstances and relations presented by the particular case are fairly embraced within any of the settled principles and heads of jurisdiction which are generally acknowledged as constituting the department of equity.” It is further said that one of the results which follows is that “a court of equity will not, unless perhaps in some very exceptional case, assume jurisdiction over a controversy the facts of which do not bring it within some general principle or acknowledged head of the equitable jurisprudence.”
It is to be observed that the substance of the plaintiff’s petition is that the plaintiff had conveyed to the defendant a residence property; that the building was not completed; that the defendant agreed, in consideration of payment to him of a stipulated sum of money by the plaintiff, to relieve the plaintiff of its obligation to complete the building according to the plans, specifications and survey therefor, and to pay and discharge all claims for material and labor necessary to so complete said building; that plaintiff paid the defendant said sum of money; that the defendant failed to keep his contract, and by reason of his failure, the plaintiff became liable for the payment of certain claims, the extent of which it was not definitely informed and therefore cannot state. Plaintiff’s petition contains averments as to the failure of the defendant to account and of refusal on demand to render an accounting to the plaintiff, and other similar averments; but an action for the recovery of money as a debt or as damages is essentially an action at law and cannot be converted into a suit in equity by the mere use of words and phrases usually found only in pleadings in equitable actions, no matter how often repeated nor the extent of variation of such allegations. The essential and material aver
It follows that the action of the court of appeals in dismissing the appeal was right and its judgment is therefore affirmed.
Judgment affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.