48 La. Ann. 940 | La. | 1896
The opinion of the court was delivered by
In the present case the District Oourt passed not •only upon the exception of res judicata, but also upon the other ex-
Defendant’s exception that plaintiff’s petition discloses no cause for an injunction and that it should be dissolved is substantially a motion to dissolve on the face of the papers. We find no allegation in the petition which, in our opinion, would call for an injunction. Plaintiff alleges that “the defendant threatens to deprive petitioner of the use of his property, disturb him in the actual and real possession which he has had for more than one year, and of his rights of possession, ownership and enjoyment thereof, and thus deprive petitioner and impair the rights granted to him under the laws and Constitution of the United States and of the State of Louisiana, “ but there is not one single word in the whole petition going to explain or to specify what the threats-of the defendant were, to which he alludes, or what they cover. He says that the defendants threaten to interfere with his rights in the property described in his petition, under a contract with the city of New Orleans, which he declares to be inoperative, null and void as to him, but in what manner this interference is to be made or in respect to what particular right this interference is expected to take-place, we are left completely in the dark. ' A general allegation of a threatened injury without any announcement as to what the supposed injury will result from, or as to what it will result in, is totally insufficient to justify an injunction. No issue is raised by plaintiff’s petition. Defendant does not know either what he is expected to assert
This conclusion having been reached, the exception of res judicata passes out of the case. We are not called on to say whether the judgment of the District Court in the case of Sweeney vs. Otis determined not only for the purposes of that particular demand and that particular court the right of Sweeney to collect wharfage against Otis as against the particular defences set up by the latter,, or whether it would only serve in that court as a precedent for other cases of a similar character which might be brought. The District Oourt has no superior limit to its jurisdiction, and it had power and authority to pass upon the question of the nullity of Sweeney’s contract, or the scope of that contract, had such questions been before it by di
The appeal to the Court of Appeals was dismissed, as we have already slated.
A discussion of this subject will be found in Wells on Bes Judicata, Chapter XVI, subdivision “Directness of the Issue in the First Action,” and alluded to in Succession of Winn, 30 An. 702; State exrel. Pugh vs. Judge of the Twentieth Judicial District, 33 An. 1385, and Succession of Winn, 33 An. 1396; Vinet, Executor, vs. Bres & Richardson, recently decided.
The judgment appealed from is hereby affirmed^