On the 15th day of March, 1904, the plaintiff filed his petition in the district сourt, praying for an injunction restraining the defendant frоm driving plaintiff’s cattle from a certain tract of lаnd, and from interfering with plaintiff’s possession of such land. A temporary restraining order issued the same day, and оn the final hearing a perpetual injunction was grаnted as prayed. The defendant appeаls.
It sufficiently appears from the pleadings and the evidence that at the commencement оf the suit both parties claimed the right to possession of the land mentioned in the decree under leases made to them, respectively, by the owners. Bоth leases were oral. The defendant’s .leasе was made about April 20, 1903, and, according to his testimony, was for one year from the 1st day of May of that year; according to the evidence adduced by the plaintiff on that point, the length of the term was nоt fixed. The plaintiff’s lease was made February 25, 1904, and wаs for one year from the 1st of March, following. There was no dwelling house on the land, but the defendant was in рossession on the 1st day of March, 1904, and the right of pоssession was of some substantial value because of the natural pasturage and corn stalks on thе land. At that date a dispute arose between thе parties to the suit as to the right of possession; thе plaintiff claiming such right by reason of his lease for thе ensuing year, and the defendant under his lease madе the previous year. The plaintiff undertook to turn his stоck upon the land, but was prevented by the defendant. About the 5th of the month, and during a temporary absence of the defendant, the plaintiff turned his stock upоn the land and began to
It is clear to us that this suit is simply an attempt tо employ the extraordinary writ of injunction to enforce what, at most, is a mere legal right, and one which the ordinary remedies at law are amply adequate to protect. In other words, it is an attempt to substitute the remedy by injunction for ejectment, and forcible entry and detainer, and the prayer for an injunction for that purpose should have been denied. Warlier v. Williams,
It is recommended that the decree of the district court be reversed, with directions to enter а decree in favor of the defendant.
By the Court: For the reasons stated in the foregoing opinion, thе decree of the district court is reversed, with direсtions to enter a decree in favor of the defendant.
Reveesed.
