272 Mo. 129 | Mo. | 1917
This case is here upon a writ of error issued June 21, 1916. The purpose of the writ is to secure a review of the record and proceedings in a certain case theretofore pending in the circuit court of Howell County in which a judgment had been entered in compliance with a mandate of the Springfield Court of Appeals.
A chronological resume of all the facts nearly and remotely connected with this case is presented. While much of this is extraneous and cannot be considered in determining the matter at issue, its statement will afford an opportunity for a better understanding of the case than can otherwise be obtained.
All prior matters having been adjudicated, the record and proceedings ordered to be brought up under our writ “that error, if any there be, may be corrected,” etc., has reference only to the record of the judgment of the circuit court of Howell County entered in compliance with the mandate of the Court of Appeals. Compliance therewith is the trial court’s only alternative. [Bagnell Timb. Co. v. M. K. & T. Ry. Co., 242 Mo. 11; State ex rel. v. Lamb, 174 Mo. App. 360; Ward v. Haren, 183 Mo. App. 569.] Our review, therefore, must be limited to consideration of the court’s action in this regard.
We have heretofore had occasion to consider this question in Meyer v. Goldsmith, 196 S. W. 745, in which
There are no assignments of error assailing the integrity of the judgment we are authorized to review. The assignments made have reference only to errors alleged to have been committed during the first trial. These, as we have shown, were finally, disposed of in the opinion and judgment of the Court of Appeals (183 S. W. 644). If this were not true, not only in .this case but in others, the courts, instead of tending to terminate controversies by the finality of their judgments, would but offer opportunities for unending strife. There being apparent in this record, therefore, no substantial reason why we should interfere with the judgment of the trial court in its entry of the mandate of the Court of Appeals, we decline to do so.
The result of this conclusion would be an affirmance of the judgment of the circuit court. Another question, however, is acutely presented by the record which renders a formal declaration of this conclusion unnecessary. It is that of this court’s jurisdiction to entertain and determine the appeal in this case. The grounds of our alleged jurisdiction as asserted by plaintiffs in error, is that one of the parties defendant is a county and that a construction of the revenue law is involved. The writ of error is based upon a judgment rendered upon a motion to assess damages on an injunction bond. Stoddard County has no interest in this matter. In the original proceeding out of which this action arose the county did have an interest in the funds in controversy, but this case was appealed to the Supreme Court and there determined. Thus determined, whatever interest the county had in the controversy ended. Furthermore, its right to file the motion to assess damages on the injunction bond did not exist, because the interest on its deposits, about which the original suit centered, had all been paid, and as a consequence it would have been entitled to no damages in said suit and hence did not join therein.
The nearest approach to a revenue, law being involved is the fact that the original suit was concerning the interest on county funds. This, as stated, had been fully determined and the action here under review was simply in regard to the assessment of damages on an injunction bond.
Both of these questions were presented to and considered by the Court of Appeals, which ruled, as we do, adversely to the contention of the plaintiffs in error.
No facts are now submitted persuasive of our right to hear and determine this case, and while we have held, upon a review of all of the testimony relevant and otherwise, that we will not interfere with the judgment of the circuit court, we hold in addition that the writ of error was improvidently issued and should be quashed. It is so ordered.