Wenar v. Jones
Wenar v. Jones
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
This is an application for an injunction made to this Supreme Court by Joseph Wenar against the Right Reverend William A. Jones, Catholic Bishop of Porto Rico, for the purposes and on the grounds set forth in the said application. The petitioner, Wenar,, alleges therein that the said bishop having prosecuted against him an action of unlawful detainer in the District Court of San Juan, to compel him to vacate two houses situated in'this capital which the petitioner had leased from him, and the trial having been had the district
1. That a temporary restraining order issue and that the defendant be required to appear before this honorable court on the day which may be set, in the court room, to show cause why' a writ of .injunction should not issue restraining said defendant and each and every one of his agents and representatives from continuing .to collect the rentals of the estates in question while the appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States is pending, or to interfere with the petitioner in any way in 'the management thereof.
2. That an order issue to give the petitioner possession of the. $600 deposited in the Colonial Bank and the other $300 deposited in the office of the secretary of the district court at the disposition of the Catholic Bishop of Porto Bico, authorizing the latter to retain all the money collected by him and to apply it to the payment of the rentals of the estates in controversy ; and with regard to the sum of $660 collected in excess, that the said bishop be required to credit said sum as an advance made on the account of said rentals in accordance with the terms of the contract of lease, and
3. That all other orders issue which this court may deem equitable and just.
Now then, considering the question at issue in' these proceedings on its merits the undersigned justice is of the opinion that the injunction prayed for by Wenar does not lie and should be denied.
Under the provisions of section 2 of the act of the Legislative Assembly of this Island, approved March 10, 1906, in force on the subject under consideration,
“The Supreme Court, or any judge thereof, may issue injunctions to enforce the jurisdiction of said court under the regulations prescribed by law.”
And one of these is precisely that comprised in subdivision one of section four of the same act, according to which a judgment cannot be granted “to stay a judicial proceeding pending at the commencement of the action in which the injunction is demanded, unless such restraint is necessary to prevent a multiplicity of such proceedings;” the latter in agreement with the provisions of section three of the same act, which authorizes an injunction among other cases “where the restraint is necessary tó prevent a multiplicity of judicial proceedings.”
In this case no other proceeding is pending involving the matter of the petition of Wenar than the action of unlawful detainer prosecuted against him by the Bishop of Porto Rico in the District Court of San Juan, which is now awaiting the decision of the judge on a motion filed by Wenar involving the same matter which constitutes the principal subject of this injunction — that is to say, to require the marshal of the district court to comply with the order of this court directing
Furthermore, an injunction as defined in section one of said act “is a judicial command in writing issued under the seal of a court directing a person to refrain from doing or permitting to be done by others under his control a particular act which violates a right of another;” and consequently everything which the petitioner requests in the second prayer of his application to the effect that the possession of the $900, which he alleges to have deposited in the Colonial Bank and in the office of the secretary of the district court for the account of the said bishop, be restored to him, and that the latter be authorized to retain in his possession all the money which he may have collected and apply it to the payment of the, rental of the estates in litigation as well as the $660, which it is alleged he collected in excess of what he.was entitled to collect in accordance with the terms of the lease contract, everything, we say, is matter improper in and extraneous to an application of this character, the purpose of which, as we have seen, is confined to the prevention of acts which violate the rights of another and appears to be more proper in such action of unlawful detainer or in an ordinary action in another case.
Nor can it be maintained that the petitioner lacked any other adequate remedy to prevent the marshal of the district court from continuing to' execute the judgment against the
This proceeding, which was the adequate one for Wenkr to obtain a stay of the execution of the judgment of dispossession until his appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States should be decided and which the petitioner adopted in compliance with the order of this court of February 21 last, “that he take the proper steps in the district court for the execution qf the order to stay in proper form, ’ ’ this proceeding, we have heretofore said and nbw repeat, cannot be stayed nor set aside by an injunction of this character as it would be contrary to the rules of the act in force governing the matter, which is that passed by the Legislative Assembly and approved by the Governor on March 10, 1906, and conse
Petition denied.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.