49 W. Va. 432 | W. Va. | 1901
The St. Lawrence Boom and Manufacturing Company filed its bill of interpleader in the circuit court of Greenbrier County against J. M. Price, trustee, John Peters and others, creditors of said Peters, holding orders from him against the plaintiff, in which it alleged that it was indebted to said Peters on settlement to the amount of one hundred and twelve dollars and eighty-eight cents, as shown by Peters’ acknowledgment; that J. Mf Price, trustee, claimed the whole of said amount by virtue of a general assignment made him by said Peters and the various other defendants claimed it by virtue of orders given to them, and prayed that the court should determine to whom the same should be paid. The amount was paid into court. The defendant Peters demurred and answered, and in his answer claimed that the plaintiff owed him at least two thousand five hundred dollars over and above all the orders given by him, and which was assigned by him to said trustee Price. The trustee answered to the same effect. Some of the other defendants claimed that they held orders on the plaintiff which had been accepted by the plaintiff to be paid whenever the amount due Peters was sufficient to cover the same. The plaintiff filed a special replication claiming that its indebtedness to Peters should be settled, and whatever amount was found due should be distributed to the creditors of Peters according to priority of right. This replication was rejected by the court. The trustee further claimed that he had instituted suit at law to determine the true amount due from plaintiff to Peters. Thereupon plaintiff tendered another amended or original bill asking that the accounts between itself and Peters be settled, that the priorities of the defendants be determined, and that the various defendants be enjoined from prosecuting suits at law against it on their various claims. The circuit court on application refused an injunction, but a judge of this Court awarded a preliminary injunction enjoining the trustee from prosecuting his suit against the plaintiff and enjoining all the other defendants from prosecuting any proceedings to enforce the payment of the orders held by them on the plaintiff from J ohn Peters, except in this suit.
The only appealable order in the record at the present time is the order dissolving the injunction. The appeal having been granted, the plaintiff is not injured by the refusal of the court to grant a suspension of the decree. The defendants not being before the court against whom the injunction was perpetuated, such order as to them is void and amounts to no more than a refusal to dissolve the injunction until such defendants are served with process. If the injunction should not have been granted, the shortness of the notice is a matter of indifference as no time was required to sustain the allegations of the bill, as no answer being filed, they must be admitted to be true. So the only question presented is as to whether the court erred in dissolving the injunction. There are two grounds alleged for equitable jurisdiction in this case, the first is, that it is a matter of account. Courts of law have jurisdiction of matters of account, as well as courts of equity, and unless the bill shows specific reasons for doing so a court of equity will not interfere with an action at law. Mere general allegations as to the intricacy of accounts are not sufficient to give a court of equity jurisdiction and oust the jurisdiction' of a court of law.
The second equitable grounds alleged is to prevent a multiplicity of suits. At common law an unsettled account was not assignable. Under the law as it exists at present, such accounts are assignable and suits may be brought thereon in the name of the assignee. Code, chapter 99, section 14.
While such is the case, a single cause of action cannot be subdivided by various assignments without the consent of the debtor for the reason it may subject him to many embarrassments, and responsibilities not contemplated in his original contract. If the debtor assents thereto partial assignments will be held good even in a court of law, even though such partial assignments be conditional. A court of equity will recognize and enforce partial assignments, for the reason that the rights of all parties in interest can be determined in a single suit, and the rights of the debtor and the several assignees can be fully .deter
Reversed.