34 Wis. 181 | Wis. | 1874
The court is not prepared to deny the correctness of the proposition that sec. 8 of art. YII of the constitution vests in this court original jurisdiction to issue the writ of injunction in a proper case. That section underwent very thorough examination in Attorney General v. Blossom, 1 Wis., 317; and it would seem to be'quite inconsistent with the reasoning of the court and the conclusion arrived at in that case, to hold that such power is not vested in this court as part of its original, and not of its appellate, jurisdiction. As incidental to its appellate jurisdiction, and necessary to the full and proper exercise of it in cases brought up by writ of error or appeal, the power to grant the writ or order a stay of proceedings in those cases would have existed without an express grant. Such appears to have been the ground on which the court rested its decision in Waterman v. Raymond, 5 Wis., 184, as.well as in some other cases there referred to in note. The effort in Attorney General v. Blossom was to show that the jurisdiction to issue the writs named in the third clause of the section of the constitution referred to, of which the writ of injunction is one, is original, and that it is not connected with or given in aid of the appellate power conferred by the first clause of the same section. It is, according to the reasoning of the court and the conclusion which it reached, an independent grant of power to be originally and primarily exercised by this court, not as ancillary to its appellate jurisdiction, but above and beyond that — a power to issue the writ on proper application made to this court in the first instance. It is an express grant of such power, which would otherwise have been taken away by the restrictive language of the first clause of the section. Such appear to have been the views then taken by the court; and we are not disposed to criticise the construction, or to depart from or question the decision as not being full and au-, thoritative upon the several points there discussed.
Eeference is also made to the statute providing that “ any judge of said court shall, on good cause shown, have power to allow writs of error, supersedeas, as before provided for, and also to grant writs of injunction.” R. S., ch. 115, sec. 7; 2 Tay. Stats., 1296, § 12. The power thus given is obviously one conferred in aid of the appellate jurisdiction of the court, and intended to be so exercised. The injunction which a justice of this court is authorized to allow, must be in a suit brought to this court by appeal or writ of error, or it may be, by possibility, in a suit originally commenced here. It is not a roving power to grant writs of injunction in any or every suit pending in any of the courts of the state. Such is the practical construction which the statute has always received; and we have no hesitation in pronouncing it the true one.
It follows from these views that we have no power to grant the writ, and that the application must be dismissed out of this court.
Counsel on both sides urge us, nevertheless, to express an opinion upon the merits of the application. It is seldom or never proper under such circumstances to do so; and we proceed with great reluctance to say that we think no sufficient ground is shown by the complaint for issuing the writ. • Our reasons are, that the taxes assessed against the plaintiff, and of which he complains, are exclusively upon his real estate, the collection of which, by the charter of the city of Mineral Point, can only be enforced by a sale of such real estate in the manner prescribed by law. A temporary injunction is, therefore, a remedy of which the plaintiff stands in no need for his present or ultimate protection. The cause can, and, in the ordinary course of events, will be tried, and the plaintiff’s rights finally determined, long before any tax deed can issue, and conse
By the Court.— Motion denied.