29 Cal. 444 | Cal. | 1866
This is an appeal from an order denying a motion to dissolve an injunction. The motion was made on the complaint and answer unaccompanied by any affidavits upon either side.
The action was brought to restrain the defendant by injunction from enforcing, by execution or otherwise, a certain judgment which he had obtained in an action of ejectment against the plaintiffs’ grantors, and to open and set the same aside, or in other words to obtain a new trial in that action.
The facts, as detailed in the complaint, are substantially as follows:
In view of the foregoing facts, in connection with a general allegation to the effect that their title is good, while that of the defendant is worthless and pretended, the plaintiffs claim the interposition of a Court of equity, and allege that they are entitled to the relief sought by them on the ground of surprise.
That the complaint contains no cause of action hardly admits of debate. That it does not is manifest from the single fact, independent of the matters set out, that the complaint assigns no reason why the plaintiffs did not avail themselves of the remedy afforded by a motion for a new trial. If they were informed of the trial and judgment in time to move for a new trial, that remedy would have been all-sufficient, and that they were not informed in time is not alleged. We are compelled, therefore, to assume that they did learn it in time. Such being the case, they were bound to exhaust their legal remedies by moving for a new trial in the Court of law before coming to a Court of equity to obtain it. By this action the plaintiffs can obtain no relief which they could not have obtained by a motion for a new trial in the original action; for if their neglect to defend that action admits of legal excuse, full relief was attainable in that action by motion, and no resort to this action was necessary. For this reason alone they cannot be allowed to maintain this action without showing that they had no opportunity to make the motion, by reason of some mistake, accident or surprise, unaccompanied by any fault or negligence on their part.
When Courts of equity will not set aside a judgment at law.
But, independent of the foregoing consideration, the complaint is, in our judgment, entirely destitute of equity. Courts of equity will not interfere and set aside a verdict or judgment at law, on the theory of this case, except where it has been obtained by fraud or through some accident or mistake, without fault or laches on the part of the party complaining, and after all remedy at law has been lost. (2 Story’s Eq. Juris., Sec. 887, et sequens.) But all these grounds of equity jurisdiction are wanting in the present case. It is not pretended that the judgment in question was obtained by fraud on the part of the defendant in this action or any one else. That the plaintiffs in this action were not prevented from making their
With full and complete knowledge of all the facts and circumstanqes, the plaintiffs failed to make any provision for the defense of the estate which they had acquired, and rested upon the vague notion that because the lawsuit, which they had purchased with their eyes open, had been on the calendar of the Court for a long time without a trial, it probably never would be tried, and upon the unfounded belief that if by cbance the case should ever be brought to trial their interests would be defended by counsel whom they had never retained, and who, therefore, would have had no legal claim against them for compensation for their services. It is impossible to conceive a case more barren of all claim to the interposition of a Court of equity. The whole case made by the plaintiffs may be summed up in the forcible language of counsel for appellant: “ They purchased a lawsuit and neglected to defend it.” Instead of showing that they have been the vie
The order refusing to dissolve the injunction is reversed, and the cause is remanded with instructions to the Court below to dissolve the injunction.