Hickok v. Caton
Hickok v. Caton
Opinion of the Court
A. C. Caton brought his action before a justice of the peace in Ritchie County, against J. W. Hickok and obtained judgment therein for $125.00. Hickok took it to the circuit court of Ritchie County on certiorari. On the 20th day of October, 1898, the cause was heard in the circuit court on certiorari, the verdict of the jury before the justice was set aside as well as the judgment therein and the cause dismissed and judgment for costs in favor of Hickok against Caton. On the 27th of October, at the ■same term plaintiff, Catón, moved the court to set aside the order of judgment entered on the 20th of October when the court
Plaintiff alleges in his bill that he first made a special, appearance before the justice to dismiss the action for the reason that the justice had no jurisdiction and submitted evidence to the justice that there never had been any dealings between the parties in Ritchie County and that plaintiff, Hickok, was a resident of Tyler County, where the cause of action, if any there was, arose; that the justice refused to dismiss the cause and called a jury to try it; but that said jury was not sworn according to the provisions of section SC, chapter 50, Code; that the jury rendered a verdict upon which the justice entered j cidgment in favor ■of Catón against Hickok and sets out the facts of suing out his writ of certiorari and the proceedings thereon as hereinbefore stated; alleging that plaintiff, Hickok, had no notice of the orders of October 20th and 27th, and he being a resident of Tyler County and not of Ritchie County he was entitled to notice thereof under the provisions of section 12, chapter 127, Code, and further alleging that the order of October 20, of the circuit court setting aside the verdict of the jury and the judgment of the justice and giving judgment to Hickok for his costs in the certiorari proceedings was never set aside by the circuit court of Ritchie County and still remains in full force as it was entered on the 20th day of October; that the last order of October 27, dismissing the writ of certiorari was illegal and improviclently entered and was in violation of the provisions of section 3, chapter 110, Code, and exhibited with his bill as well the proceedings before the justice as in the circuit court of Ritchie Coimty, and alleging «that notwithstanding the judgment of the justice was set aside said justice on- the 30th day of January, 1900, furnish a transcript thereof from his docket and said Catón caused the same to be recorded ■ on the 2d of Peb-xuary, 1900, in the office of the circuit court of Ritchie County.
On the 3d day of July, 1901, the cause was heard upon the papers formerly read and upon the motion to dissolve the injunction, when the court held that plaintiff was entitled to relief prayed for and perpetuated the injunction without prejudice to the rights of the defendants or either of them to take such proceedings at law as they might be advised to bring. Prom which decree the defendants appealed.
It seems that the only qiiestion involved here under the decisions and'rulings of this Court and of the courts of Virginia, is as to whether the plaintiff who was the execution debtor had an adequate remedy at law; 1 High on Injunctions 230, it ig said: “While 'the discussion of this branch of the preventive jurisdiction of equity as applied to void judgments, as shown in the preceding sections, has demonstrated a remarkable conflict of authority upon the right of relief by injunction in such cases, the prevailing tendency of the courts seems toward the establishment of the simple test in such cases, of whether adequate remedy exists at law for the protection of the judgment debtor against the void judgment. Where such remedy exists, either by appeal, certiorari, application to the court itself which rendered the judgment, or in any other legal and adequate manner, no satisfactory reason is perceived why equity should depart from the universal rule of withholding its extraordinary aid to redress a grievance which is remediable at law;” see Hudson v. Kline, 9 Grat. 379; and in Shay v. Nolan, 46 W. Va. 399, it is held: “A bill for an injunction to the judgment of a justice on the verdict of a jury, which shows on its face that the plaintiffs have a plain,
The judgment of the justice having been vacated and set aside and the action dismissed by the circuit court, Hicfeok’s remedy was and is by motion to quash execution for want of judgment to support it.
The bill failed to show that the plaintiff was without adequate remedy at law, the demurrer should have been sustained, and •this Court, proceeding to render such judgment as the circuit ■court should have rendered, the decree is reversed, the demurrer ■sustained, and the bill dismissed.
Reversed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.