146 So. 872 | Miss. | 1933
Appellees in their capacity as trustees of the Tutwiler municipal school, and individually, brought this action in the circuit court of Tallahatchie county against appellant A.C. Campbell, as principal, and appellant United States Fidelity Guaranty Company, as surety, to recover damages upon an injunction bond executed by them in favor of appellees in a suit then pending in the chancery court of said county, styled A.C. Campbell, Complainant, v. John Stauffer et al., Defendants. The court directed a verdict in favor of appellees on the issue of liability, and submitted to the jury the question alone as to the damages to be assessed on the bond. The jury returned a verdict in favor of appellees in the sum of five hundred dollars; from that judgment appellants prosecute this appeal.
The chancery court case in which the injunction bond was executed came up to this court on appeal; the report of the case being in Campbell v. Warwick,
Appellants contend that there is no liability on the injunction bond, because at the time of the dismissal of the injunction suit by the chancery court the question in that case was moot — there was nothing for the court to decide. This contention is based on the facts, which are undisputed, that appellant Campbell's contract as superintendent of the school had expired when the bill was dismissed. Appellees contend that, although the grounds upon which the chancery court cause was based were moot, nevertheless the question of liability on the injunction bond was not a moot question.
To sustain their contention appellants rely on Yates v. Beasley,
Appellees, to sustain the decree appealed from, rely on Harrison v. Balfour, 5 Smedes M. 301; Marshall v. Minter,
It is true that, at the time of the dismissal of the bill, the question whether appellant Campbell was rightfully the superintendent of the school for the scholastic year 1925-26 was not a live question, because the decision of the court one way or the other could not be enforced. It does not follow, however, that the question of liability on the injunction bond was a dead issue. The liability on the bond for costs and damages was still a live question. The grounds for the injunction, although moot so far as their original purpose was concerned, were alive incidentally in order to determine what had become the main question, namely, liability on the injunction bond.
Affirmed.