98 Tenn. 414 | Tenn. | 1897
The bills in these causes were filed in the Chancery Court of Williamson County, on July 31, 1891, and, among other things, allege that at the December term, 1886, of the Supreme Court, one G. W. Hicks, as trustee, recovered a
Chancellor Malone, on the hearing, was of opinion that the present bill is not a bill to carry into effect a former decree, but a bill rather to modify the decree of the Supreme Court, and accordingly adjudged -that his Court was without jurisdiction to grant the relief, and dismissed the bill. On appeal, the Court of Chancery Appeals reversed the decree of the Chancellor, and granted full relief to complainants by ordering a sale of the farm in question. The Court of Chancery Appeals found “that Mrs. Rizer, before her marriage, was possessed of a considerable estate, both real and personal, which was held in trust for her benefit and support by her mother, Mrs. Baugh. When she married the said Y. M. Rizer, the estate was turned over to her husband as her trustee, and he, so far as appears, spent or used it all, except a tract of land of some one hundred and seventy-five acres in the ninth civil district of Williamson County; that her marriage took place a number of years ago, and her husband
If this bill were filed simply for the purpose of enforcing the execution of a former decree, it would readily be recognized as belonging to an acknowledged head of equity jurisdiction. Amongst the original and undoubted powers of a Court of Equity, is that of entertaining a bill filed for enforcing and carrying into effect a decree of the same or a different Court, as the exigencies of the case or the interest of the parties may require. Beech on Mod. Eq. Pr.; Shields v. Thomas, 18 How., 253.
Says Mr. Story, in his work on Pleading, viz.: “Sometimes, from the neglect of parties or some other cause, it becomes impossible to carry a decree into execution without the further decree of the Court. This happens generally in cases where parties, having neglected to proceed upon the decree, their rights under it become so embarrassed by a variety of subsequent events that it is necessary to have the decree of the Court to ascertain and settle them. ' . . . The Court, in these cases, in general, only enforces, and does not vary, the decree. But upon circumstances it has sometimes reconsidered the original directions and varied them in case of mistake.” Story’s Eq. Plead., Sec. 429 (10th Ed.). The present bill, it will be observed, is not filed upon the theory of any mistake in the original decree of this Court, nor have the rights of complainants become embarrassed by subsequent events
The decree of the Court of Chancery Appeals is reversed, and the decree of the Chancellor, dismissing the bill, is affirmed with costs. The case of Helms, Trustee, v. B. B. Smith et al., heard with this case, being precisely similar in its facts, will share the same fate.