6 Fla. 533 | Fla. | 1856
delivered-the opinion of the Court.
This is an appeal from the Circuit Court sitting in Chancery for Jefferson County, for granting an order dissolving an injunction upon the coming in of the answers, which had been previously allowed in this case.
The-case made by the bill is, that the defendant Minor Walker, on the 1st day of January, 1850, did, by his covenant under seal, amongst other things, hire, for the space of five years, fifteen negro slaves, therein named, to the complainant. In consideration whereof, the said complainant agreed to pay the said defendant Walker the sum of $6000, in five equal annual instalments of $1200 each, to become due respectively on the 1st day of January in the years 1851-2-3-4 and 5, for which several instalments the complainant executed his five several promissory notes to the said defendant Walker. And that, at the time of this transaction, Walker was and still is insolvent, and dependent mainly for the support and maintainance of himself and family upon the debt thus contracted in his favor. That the complainant made frequent advances to the said defendant Walker for necessaries, &e., the amount of which, consisting of many small items, were not endorsed by way of credit upon the said notes at the time they were made, by reason of the inconvenience of the same, and the confidence existing between the parties to the transaction, but that these advances were made with the express understanding that they should constitute off-sets in favor of.. the complainant, upon the settlement of said promissory notes, with interest at the rate of eight p'er cent, up to the ■maturity of such of the said notes as they might be applied
That Darius Williams, one of the firm of’ Denham & Palmer, said to complainant that the said firm would not have traded for said note but for the fact that they bad heard complainant say that he might be compelled by law to pay the same over again, provided the said defendant Walker should negotiate it before due.
To the truth of the foregoing narrative of facts, which are elaborately set forth in the' bill, the defendants are minutely and circumstantially interrogated in twenty-three interrogatories appended thereto.
The answer of the defendant Walker, so far as the same is responsive to the bill, admits the covenant of hiring and the delivery of the negroes therein mentioned to complainant, and the re-hiring of the girl Oilier to him, the defendant Walker, the settlement with complainant, on the 1st June, 1852, and the execution by complainant of the note of 431.85 dollars, for the balance found due on the instalment for negro hire falling due on the 1st January, 1854. And the answer states that all or most of the items of complainant’s account against defendant exhibited in his bill were deducted from the note settled on this occasion^
The answer of said defendant Walker further admits that he did take a receipt for the said note from tire defendants Denham & Palmer, but that he does not know where it is nor remember the contents of it, but that its object was to show the amount of the credit to which he would be entitled in consideration of it with the said defendants Denham & Palmer. It states that the said defendant Walker “ does not recollect” and denies that he ever gave the said note to complainant for the purpose of having any credits placed upon it, and that there was no understanding that complainant’s advances should be deducted from said notes, although he admits that previous to the settlement of the 1st June, 1852, he had given orders for certain debts he owed, on complainant, (which he does not recollect,) and that they were included in that settlement and deducted from the ■note for the instalment falling due on the 1st January, 1851.
The defendants, Denham, Palmer & Williams, who con-' stitute the firm of Denham & Palmer, answer and say, they admit the hiring of tbe negroes as set forth in the bill, but know nothing of any understanding between complainant
After the transfer of the said note of $1200 to them, these defendants say they did have a conversation with the complainant, in which/ they offered to pay him any balance that might be found due him on settlement with the defendant Walker, provided the said Walker was willing, but that the said Walker refused to accede to the arrangement. And they admit that they did give the said Walker a receipt for said note, which is not in their possession, nor do they know where it is. They do not remember the language of the receipt, but its object was simply to show that the said Walker was entitled to a credit for the amount of the note. They allege that they have no recollection of exhibiting the said note to complainant until after it was due and presented for payment, nor did they ever hear that, complainant claimed any equities against said note until the filing of his bill. They deny all knowledge of any ad
All the defendants deny generally all fraud, combination, &c. There are some other matters set up by way of defence in the answer, but not being in response to the charges and interrogatories of the bill, they are not proper to be considered upon the interlocutory question now presented. It was held by this Court, in the late case of Young and Bryan vs. McCormick, 6 Fla. Rep., 368, that “ where a new equity is set up by the answer to avoid that set up by the bill, the Court will not regard it upon motion and in the same case the Court declared its purpose, “on a motion for an injunction, not to commit itself to points or questions that may arise at. the final hearing.” We are not to be considered, therefore, as determining any thing in this case definitely, except the question of injunction. That is in fact allthat is before us. It will be time enough to consider the merits when they shall have been adjudicated in the Court below, and the decree of that Court brought before us upon appeal.
That the complainant would be entitled to relief, upon the case presented by his bill, is unquestionable; and upon the extent to which that case is modified by the answers of the defendants, will depend the determination of the question under consideration. Upon a motion to dis
In Carter, vs. Bennett, et al., Fla. Rep. p 236, this Court cites, with approbation. Chancellor Kent in Robertson vs.
Let the order of the Circuit Court dissolving the injunction be reversed, and the case remanded for further proceedings.