West Virginia Development Co. v. Preston County Development Co.
West Virginia Development Co. v. Preston County Development Co.
Opinion of the Court
The decree or order appealed from, pronounced by the judge of the circuit court in vacation, on May 8, 1913, on motion of defendants, dissolved the injunction theretofore awarded by two members of this court, on May 1, 1913, en
The case was heard on said motion before the judge in vacation on bill, answer of defendant company, and ex parte affidavits filed by the parties, and by the terms of the order of dissolution it was to be without prejudice to plaintiff to institute any other suit or proceedings that it might be advised it was proper to institute touching the matters involved, and without prejudice to the institution of condemnation proceedings by plaintiff against defendants or either of them at any future time, for their lands or the lands of' either of them, or any part thereof mentioned and referred to in the bill.
Plaintiff based its right to relief by injunction on the grounds, first, that it was prior in time, and therefore in right, in the location of its Beaver Hole dam, a right which it conceived was preserved to it by section 16, chapter 11, Acts 1913, and that in attempting to bring themselves within the
The facts on which plaintiff predicates its first ground for relief, are controverted, and as the record was presented, on pleadings, exhibits and ex parte affidavits, are not very well developed. Moreover, all the facts pertaining thereto will necessarily be involved in the proceedings in condemnation yet to be brought by plaintiff to take the lands of defendants, and as we see it we ought not as the case is now presented, on this appealable but interlocutory order, prejudge or foreclose the rights of the parties by any adjudication thereon. We must not be understood as deciding, however, that when such proceedings in condemnation have been maturely brought a case may not then be presented for a continuance of the injunction. That question is not presented and not decided.
But on the second ground for relief we are clearly of opinion that the bill is well founded and that plaintiff was and is entitled to maintain the status quo by the injunction awarded, until its title to the land claimed by it along Bull Run, and sued for in ejectment, can be finally adjudicated. This proposition is fully supported by our cases of Freer v. Davis, 52 W. Va. 1, syl. 2; Pardee v. Camden Lumber Co., 70 W. Va. 68, 73 S. E. 82; Waldron v. W. M. Ritter Lumber Co., Id., 470; Becker v. McGrow, 48 W. Va. 539.
On rehearing, it is insisted that these eases involving waste or irreparable injury, and destruction of the substance of the inheritance, can have no application to the ease at bar. Many
If such be the rule where the title is not in real controversy, we think it follows that where the title is in dispute and it is alleged, and if denied, proven, that plaintiff has or is about to bring a suit in ejectment to try the title, that injunction should be available to stay or prevent like injuries pending a suit to try title. The cases cited in so far as the question of the permanency or irreparable character of the injuries or the destruction of the substance of the inheritance, waste, and want of adequate remedy at law, are concerned, are of the class to which the case at bar properly belongs. And 'if equity will enjoin trespasses where the title is not in actual controversy, there is no reason based on principle why like relief should not be granted, pending a suit to try the title, when such a suit has been or is about to be brought. The injury to the true owner is as great and the reason for staying waste and irreparable injury as potent in the one class of cases as in the other.
Reversed and remanded.
Reference
- Status
- Published