220 F. 857 | 7th Cir. | 1915
(after stating the facts as above). It is unnecessary for us to consider either the applicability of the act of 1909 to special assessment proceedings begun under acts other than that of 1905, its constitutionality, if given retroactive effect, or the unconstitutionality of the foreign corporation act of 1879 (Burns’ R. S. 1908, § 4105), in view of the conclusion reached, that the judgment of the United Statés Circuit Court, affirming the right and duty of the city to levy assessments, was, under the pleadings in the case, within its jurisdictional power, and that it is therefore res adjudicata as to those questions, all of which were, necessarily litigated in and determined thereby in favor of appellee, both as against the city, the party defendant therein, and as against appellants as privies thereto. Bradley Co. v. Eagle Co., 57 Fed. 980, 6 C. C. A. 661.
“The case is within the principle that one who prosecutes or defends a suit in the name of another to establish and protect his own ri'ght, or who assists in the prosecution or defense of an action in aid of some interest of his own, and who does this openly to the knowledge of the opposing party, is as much bound by the judgment and as fully entitled, to avail himself of it as an estoppel against an adverse party, as he would be if he had been a party to the record. Love joy v. Murray, 3 Wall. 1 [18 L. Ed. 129].” Per White, C. J., in Souffront v. Compagnie des Sucreries, 217 U. S. 475, 487, 30 Sup. Ct. 608, 612 (54 L. Ed. 846).
While, in the reported cases, such actions have been formally based upon a debt evidenced by a written contractual obligation under which the county, usually, but not always, appears as the nominal, though never as the real, obligor, in substance, as the opinions expressly state, they” are merely substitutes for original mandamus, devised and sanctioned to enable the federal courts to exercise a proper jurisdiction.
“My only doubt in this connection is whether the declaration should not count upon the failure of the board of supervisors to take the proper proceedings for the levy and collection of this tax. The state courts have repeatedly held (hat no action as for a debt will lie against the municipality upon these warrants.”
That the plaintiff asserted in his complaint a failure of the defendant to discharge a duty owing to the plaintiff, and its liability in damages because of the neglect of its statutory obligations, and in the prayer asked for damages, does not limit the jurisdictional power of the court to render such a judgment as the facts recited in the complaint would justify. Especially is this so when, as in this case, because of the statutory provisions exempting the city from liability and declaring the special assessment fund the sole source of payment, a general judgment against the city either in debt or in damagesi would have been erroneous (City of Pontiac v. Talbot Paving Co., 94 Fed. 65, 36 C. C. A. 88, 48 L. R. A. 326; Id., 96 Fed. 679, 37 C. C. A. 556), and when, in addition to the specific prayer for damages, the plaintiff asked for “such other and further relief in the premises as to the court may seem proper.”
Whether regarded as an action in tort or as an action in contract, the federal court clearly had jurisdiction of the subject-matter. A general judgment against the city, though erroneous, would have been within its jurisdictional power. And while a judgment or decree which is beyond the power of the court to render in any case, or so much thereof as is entirely without the scope, not merely of the specific prayer, but of the substance, of the pleadings, is void, even on collateral attack (King v. Doerr, 145 App. Div. 177, 129 N. Y. Supp. 986, affirmed Same v. Beers, 203 N. Y. 559, 96 N. E. 1117), the instant judgment, with its limitation based upon the facts of the case pleaded, though departing from the specific relief prayed for, was clearly within the jurisdictional power of the court, and is therefore binding upon the parties in this case (Insley v. United States, 150 U. S. 512, 14 Sup. Ct. 158, 37 L. Ed. 1163). In the very case in which such a limited judgment was first upheld (County of Cass v. Johnston, 95 U. S. 360, 24 L. Ed. 416), the plaintiff seems to have demanded a general judgment.
H. C. Cook Co. v. Beecher, 217 U. S. 497, 30 Sup. Ct. 601, 54 L. Ed. 855, is in no way in conflict with Preston v. Calloway, 183 Fed. 19, 105 C. C. A. 311 (C. C. A., 6th Circuit). In the former case a suit against directors of a corporation to enforce their liability created by state statute for certain debts of the corporation was held not to be ancillary to a judgment against the corporation. In no proper' sense was this a suit to enforce the judgment merely because' a judgment against the corporation was a condition precedent to the creation of the directors’ independent statutory obligation.
In the present case, however, as in the Calloway Case, “the object •of the suit was to enforce payment of the tax in order to obtain satisfaction to that extent of the judgment theretofore rendered on the law side,” not to enforce an entirely independent liability. The assessments and liens thereby created constituted the sola fund to which the city or contractor could resort for the payment of the judgment which, while it was in form the debt of the city, in substance was .the obligation of these appellants as owners of the assessed property.
Moreover, a single assessment against one lot owned by two persons in common does not violate the rule that each tract or lot must be assessed separately. And, by the express provisions of the statute a mistake in the name of the owner of the land does not vitiate the assessment. In this case, each owner had due notice of all proceedings.
Decree affirmed.