Rowan v. Riley
Rowan v. Riley
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court:
The complainant files this bill to enjoin the collection of a judgment for about $80, recovered against her by the defendant for rent of a portion of a tract of land, the title to which was in litigation between her mother and the defendant at the time of the renting, and which litigation was ultimately determined in her mother’s favor. The complainant now claims the land as heir at law of her mother, and the theory of the bill is that she has a large demand in litigation against the defendant for rents and profits, and that her recovery must be largely more than the amount of the defendant’s judgment, and that therefore the judgment ought to be perpetually enjoined. The
We must hold the proceeding premature. The complainant has nothing now to set off against the defendant’s judgment. In the case of Smith v. Ross, 3 Hum., 220, it was held that a court of equity will not take jurisdiction for the purpose of restraining the enforcement of a judgment at law and setting off against said judgment the damages complainant may have sustained by defendant’s breach of covenants made to complainant, there being no allegation of insolvency in the bill, and no impediment in the way of complainant’s pi’osecution of his rights at law. “There is,” said Green, J., in that case, “no> equity against the judgment sought to be enjoined; and the only ground the complainant states for coming into this court is, that the defendants owe him an amount equal to their judg
The decree must be reversed, and the bill dismissed, bin witlio-ut prejudice to complainant’s rights in any present; or future litigation to have the true boundaries of her land defined, or to invoke the injunctive power of the court of chancery in any proper case to restrain the defendant from trespassing on the land.
Let the decree be reversed, and the bill dismissed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- LUCINDA ROWAN v. JOHN D. RILEY
- Status
- Published