48 So. 477 | Ala. | 1908
The appeal in this case is prosecuted from an interlocutory decree of the chancellor overruling- the respondent’s motion to dismiss the bill for want of equity, demurrer to the bill, and motion to dissolve the preliminary injunction for want of equity in the bill, and on the denials in the sworn answer of the material allegations of the bill.
The averments of the bill, in substance, are that the complainants, appellees here, are engaged in the business of buying, selling, and shipping cotton, and have been so engaged for more than a year, with their headquarters at Decatur, Ala., handling in their said business from 20,000 to 25,000 bales of cotton per annum, and will probably handle and deal in as many as 25,000 bales the current season; that they have a number of employes engaged in their service in the conduct of their business at a large expense to complainants; that the defendant, the Gulf Compress Company, is an Alabama corporation, with charter powers authorizing it to engage in the general storage and compress business; that the Gulf Compress Company in 1904 leased the plaint of the Decatur Compress Company, an Alabama corporation of like powers, for a term of five years, at an annual cost to it of $10,000 to be paid as rent; that said plant has been conducted prior to said lease by the Decatur Compress Company, and since by the Gulf Compress Company under said lease, as a public warehouse and compress for hire and compensation, inviting dealers such as complainants, and the public, to store their cotton; that said cotton compress and warehouse is located in the city of Decatur and on lines of railway which furnish shipping facilities in the handling of cotton, and the complainants are dependent upon the defendant’s warehouse and compress and facilities “for the proper conduct of their (complainants’) business;” that
It will be observed from the foregoing statement that the alleged wrong complained of is based upon the increase in rates and charges prescribed in the new schedule over those in the old, and as being excessive and unreasonable. The bill is directed- against the Gulf Compress Company as warehouseman, no complaint being made as to the compress feature of respondent’s business. The relief sought is injunctive. There is no-charge of discrimination against the complainants in favor of any other customer of the respondent, but all are put upon the same basis and with like treatment.
The bill, according to its averments and prayer for relief, is predicated upon the theory that the business of the respondent is “affected with a public interest”' either by virtue of the act of March 7, 1907, declaring all warehouses in incorporated cities and towns for the-storage of cotton or other articles of value for compensation to be public warehouses, or by reason of its being a monopoly in fact. However this may be, whether “affected with a public interest” or not, Ave need not decide that being unnecessary to a conclusion of the case under our view of the Iuav applicable to the facts
Conceding, then, for the sake of argument that the respondent the Gulf Compress Company, in the warehouse branch of its business, is conducting and carrying on a business “affected with a public interest,” the first question with which we are confronted at the very threshold is, Does the bill on the facts stated present a case for equity jurisdiction? It is an elementary principle that a court of equity is without jurisdiction to hear and determine a cause wherein a plain and adequate remedy may be had in a court of law, unless it be that jurisdiction is conferred by statute. And it was in this doctrine of the failure of a court of law to furnish such plain and adequate remedy for the enforcement of rights and redress of wrongs in certain cases that the court of chancery had its origin.
As a rule, where the wrong complained of can be redressed and fully compensated in damages by a money standard, a court of chancery will not assume jurisdiction for the reason that an adequate remedy exists at law. Where, then, the question is one of damage to individual or property rights, to warrant a court of equity in the assumption of jurisdiction, the damage must be in its nature irreparable, or incapable of' measurement in dollars and cents, or unless coupled with some other independent matter of equitable cognizance. These are elementary principles.
Applying these principles to the case before us, let us inqure what, if any, fact is alleged that will give a court of equity jurisdiction. In its first analysis, the case presented by the bill is that the respondent is now,
It is true it is alleged in the bill that if complainants submit to and pay the increased charges under the new schedule of rates it will be practically ruinous to the complainants. This, however, in the light of. other facts contained in the bill, can but be regarded as a conclusion of the pleader, and not as the statement of a fact. The difference in amount produced by the alleged overcharges
It is urged that the complainants would be put to numerous suits at law, and hence the bill has equity upon the doctrine of the prevention of a multiplicity of suits. It cannot be denied but that the complainants might in one action at law sue to recover all of the overcharges paid for the entire cotton season. One suit or a multiplicity of suits therefore would be a matter of complainants’ own election. There being no necessity for a multiplicity of suits the reason for the interference of a court of equity on the principle mentioned fails.
It is urged as another ground of equity in the bill that the schedule of maximum rates named in the lease contract entered into between the Gulf Company and the Decatur Company was made and intended for the benefit of the complainants and others engaged in like business, and that having been made for their benefit, although not so expressly declared, the contracting parties have no right to annul the same, and the complainants, as such beneficiaries, have a right to have the same enforced in equity. There is no provision, statement, or expression in the contract by which such intention on the part of the contracting parties is shown. The fact that one not a party or privy to a contract is incidentally benefited under it is no reason for declaring that the contract was made and intended for his benefit.
The law, we think, is too well settled to admit of doubt that the prescribing of rates for a “public service” corporation or one “affected with a public interest” is a legislative, and not a judicial, function. To this effect are the adjudications both state and federal. To us it is equally clear in the case at bar that a court of chancery has no jurisdiction or power to fix a schedule of prices to be charged by the respondent for receiving, storing, and handling complainants’ cotton. — City of Madison v. Madison Gas & Electric Co., 129 Wis. 249, 108 N. W. 65, 8 L. R. A. (N. S.) 529; W. U. Tel. Co. v. Myatt, (C. C.) 98 Fed. 342; Neb. Tel. Co. v. State, 55 Neb. 627, 76 N. W. 171, 45 L. R. A. 113; So. Pacific Co. v. Colo. Fund & Iron Co., 101 Fed. 779, 42 C. C. A. 12; Interstate Com. Com. v. R. R. Co., 167 U. S. 479, 17 Sup. Ct. 896, 42 L. Ed. 243; Reagan v. Farmers’ Loan & T. Co., 154 U. S. 362, 14 Sup. Ct. 1047, 38 L. Ed. 1014; A. T. & S. F. R. R. Co. v. Denver & N. O. R. R. Co., 110 U. S. 682, 4 Sup. Ct. 185, 28 L. Ed. 291; Smyth v. Ames, 169 U. S. 466, 18 Sup. Ct. 418, 42 L. Ed. 819; R. R. Co. v. Stockyards, etc., 45 N. J. Eq. 50, 17 Atl. 146, 6 L. R. A. 855. From the foregoing authorities the principle is likewise
But we need not pursue this line of discussion, since in our opinion, the case is determinable upon the proposition that the complainants have an edequate remedy at law for a redress of the wrongs complained of. Our attention has been called to the recent case of Exparte Young, 209 U. S. 166, 28 Sup. Ct. 441, 52 L. Ed. 714, 13 L. R. A. (N. S.) 932, cited in supplemental brief of counsel for appellee as an authority for equity jurisdiction in the case before us. The facts in that case are materially different from the facts in the case at bar. The complicated facts in the case cited, which the court say render it difficult, if not impossible, for a court of law to determine the issues do not obtain in the present case. The case of R. R. Co. v. Stockyards, etc., supra, is more analogous in fact and principle to the one under consideration. That was a case in chancery, and the bill was dismissed on the ground of an adequate remedy at law.
Our conclusion is that the bill is without equity, and the chancellor erred in not dismissing the same and dissolving the injunction on the respondent’s motion.
Beversed and rendered.