Crawford v. Atlantic Coast Lumber Corp.
Crawford v. Atlantic Coast Lumber Corp.
Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the Court was delivered by
This action for injunction arose out of differences as to rights acquired by the defendant under contract for the sale of standing timber. The plaintiffs obtained a temporary order of injunction, restraining the defendant from cutting any timber on nine hundred and fifty-four acres of the land described in the agreement, on the ground that the conveyance did not cover timber growing in the bays and branches. The undertaking given under this order was conditioned that the plaintiffs would pay the “sum of three hundred dollars, being such damages as the defendant may suffer by reason of an injunction granted by an order of his Honor, Judge Charles G.' Dantzler, on 28th day of April, 1906.” Upon motion before him, Judge Ernest Gary made an order on 15th June, 1906, dissolving the injunction ordered by Judge Dantzler. The plaintiffs appealed from this order and obtained an order from Lion Y. J. Pope, Chief Justice, enjoining the defendant from cutting the timber described in the complaint pending the appeal. Under this order the plaintiffs gave another undertaking conditioned for the payment of two hundred dollars “being such damages as the defendant may suffer by reason of an order granted by his Honor, Y. J. Pope, Chief Justice, of the Supreme Court of South Carolina, restraining and enjoining the defendant from committing any further acts of trespass and in1 cutting timber described in the complaint.” The Supreme Court reversed the order of Judge Gary and thus restored the order of injunction made by Judge Dantzler.
Upon hearing the case on the merits Judge Klugh sustained the contention of the plaintiffs and made a decree permanently enjoining the defendant from cutting any timber in the bays and branches, and rendered judgment in favor of the plaintiffs for the sum of eight hundred and twenty dollars, the value of the timber cut in the bays and *459 branches. On appeal from this decree the Supreme Court reversed the judgment of the Circuit Court on this point, holding that the timber on all the land was embraced in the contract of sale; but adjudged further that the contract conveyed only timber measuring at the time of the sale nine inches in diameter twenty feet from the butt.
Thereafter an order was made by Judge Memminger referring the cause to the master “-to take testimony relevant thereto and to assess and report the damage, if any, which the plaintiffs have sustained on account of the cutting by the defendant of any of the timber on the lands of the plaintiffs, which defendant was not under its contract entitle to cut, and to assess and report the damage if any which the defendant has sustained by reason of the issuing of the injunctions in this case, with leave to report any special matter.” The master reported that the plaintiffs had been damaged $68.83 by reason of the cutting by the defendant of timber under the size contemplated by the contract; and that the defendant 'had been damaged $539.13 by reason of the loss of trees which it had rightfully cut and which it was enjoined from removing. Upon hearing argument upon exceptions filed 'by both parties to this report, the Circuit Court found the entire damages suffered by the defendant to be $3,677.81, and after deducting $68.83, the damages found by the master in favor of the plaintiff, decreed that the defendant should have judgment for the remainder, $3,608.98.
The judgment of this Court is that the defendant is entitled to judgment against the plaintiffs- and the sureties on their undertakings for the sum of five hundred dollars, and that the judgment of the Circuit Court be modified accordingly.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Crawford v. Atlantic Coast Lumber Corporation.
- Cited By
- 4 cases
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- 1. Injunction — Damages.—Where an injunction is sustained in part, the defendant is entitled to such damages under the injunction bond as he has suffered by reason of so much of the injunction order as has not been sustained. 2. Ibid. — Ibid.—A party suffering damages by reason of an injunction cannot recover in that proceeding any amount in excess of the injunction bond. 3. Appeal.' — Here the issue of damages having been tried under an order of reference, without special pleading, the Court cannot say from the record that the point that a judgment for damages for an amount in excess of the injunction bond would be beyohd the jurisdiction of the Court, was not made below. 4. Ihjwctioh- — Damages.—A party suffering damages by reason of an injunction may recover, upon its dissolution, an amount equal to the aggregate of the initial and appeal injunction bonds.