169 Ga. 791 | Ga. | 1930
On August 24, 1929, Catlicart Van and Storage Company filed against the “City of Atlanta,” the “Borough of Atlanta,” and “Atlanta,” a petition alleging that it is engaged in the business of hauling’and moving for other persons household and kitchen furniture, wares, and merchandise; that it is not engaged in moving “persons;” that a large number of persons in the City of Atlanta change their places of abode on or about September 1st, and petitioner has at that time and for some time thereafter a large amount of hauling, which is required to be done
No express ruling appears to have been made upon a demurrer to the petition. The answer of the defendants denies the material allegations of the petition, and, with reference to the allegation that petitioner had been informed of the intention to enforce the provisions of the act, sets up the following: “The charter amendment will be enforced by the city, but, so far as these defendants are informed, it has no knowledge of any threats to arrest and inL
A court of equity should not exercise its extraordinary powers where there is no grave danger of impending injury. Bare fears of injury will not authorize such action. Elam v. Elam, 72 Ga. 162 (2), “Injunction is extraordinary process, and the most important one which courts of equity issue. It is well denominated ‘the strong arm of equity.’ The writ ‘is not an ex debito justitise for an injury threatened or done to the estate or rights of a person; but the granting [of] it must always rest in sound discretion, governed by the nature of the case.’ Enfield Toll Bridge Co. v. Conn. River Co., 7 Conn. 50. As is said in another case: ‘Injunction is not of right but of grace; and to move an upright chancellor to interpose this strongest arm of the law he must have not a sham case, but a well-grounded, complaint, the bona fides of which is unquestioned.’ Sparhawk v. Union Pass. Ry. Co., 54 Pa. 454. ‘There is no power the exercise of which is more delicate, which requires greater caution, deliberation, and sound discretion, or [is] more dangerous in a doubtful case, than the issuing [of] an injunction.’ Bonaparte v. Camden & A. R. Co., Bladw. 218 Fed. Cas. No. 1617.” Cullman Property Co. v. Hitt Lumber Co., 201 Ala. 150 (77 So. 574, 577). “Courts of equity will not exercise this power "to allay mere apprehensions of injury, but only where the injury is imminent and irreparable.” 14 R. C. L. 321, § 20. “Injunction ought not to be granted unless the injury is pressing and the delay dangerous, and there is no adequate remedy at law.” Goodrich v. Moore, 72 Am. D. 74. Under the pleadings and the evidence in this case it is obvious that there is no basis for the exercise of equity jurisdiction. The plaintiffs have in no way been molested by arrest or otherwise. It appears that the petitioners produced on the trial a letter from the city clerk, in which petitioner was informed that the city “intends to enforce said provisions of said charter by prosecuting any offender.” It is not shown why this letter was written, whether in response to an inquiry by the .petitioners, 'or at the instance of the municipal authorities. In any view the letter adds nothing
Judgment affirmed.