52 W. Va. 232 | W. Va. | 1902
On the 5th day of December, 1900, the circuit eourt of Ohio County entered an order, requiring J. C. Eredloek to appear in that court on the 12th day of December, 1900, to show cause, if any he could, why he should not be attached for his con
To the end that the ground upon which it is claimed the judgment is erroneous may be clearly understood, it is necessary to set out the facts and proceedings leading up to it. The West Virginia Loan Company was a building association, organized in 1896. For two years or more, it carried on an extensive business, having numerous stockholders and borrowers in various parts of the State and outside of it. The plaintiff in error was a stockholder and borrower to the amount of several thousand dollars. On the 5th day of October, 1898, a meeting of the stockholders was held, and a resolution adopted, providing for the voluntary dissolution of the corporation, it having been ascertained that the business could not be profitably prosecuted any further. At March rules, 1899, of the circuit court of Ohio County, the West Virginia Loan Companjr, James B. McKee, president of said company, Julian G. Hearne, Al
The plaintiff in error had borrowed three-thousand and five hundred dollars from the building association and secured the payment of it by a deed of trust upon his real estate in Mineral County. This represented thirty-five shares of stock. He held an additional sixty-five shares of stock, and on these he had borrowed seven hundred dollars, for which he had exe-
One of the first contentions is, that the hearing of the rule for the contempt should have been had in the criminal court of Ohio County. Section 27 of chainter 147 of the Code, by its very terms, is decisive of this question. That it vests in all courts the power to punish for contempt is clearly apparent. “The courts and judges thereof may issue attachments for con-tempts, and punish them summarily only in the cases following.” Said section then specifies the cases and, among them, is this: “Disobedience or resistance of any officer of the court, juror, witness, or other person, to any lawful process, judgment, decree or order of the said court.” In so far as this statute concerns the right to punish for contempts, it is merely declaratory of the common law. “The right of every superior court of record to punish for contempt of its authority or process is inherent from the very nature of its organization, and essential to its existence and protection and to the due administration of justice.” 7 Am. & Eng. Enc. Law, (2 Ed.) 30. It is restrictive in this, that it limits the right to summarily punish for contempts to the cases specified. Stale v. Hansford, 43 W. Va. 773. While the proceeding is criminal in its nature, and the rules of evidence governing criminal trials are applicable, all contempts enumerated in said section 27, may be punished summarily. In such case, the proceeding is without indictment and without a jury, unless the court, in its discretion, should see fit to impanel a jury. The contemnor is not entitled ' to a jury. State v. Hansford, cited. The power to punish for
Want of jurisdiction on the part of the circuit court of Ohio County to grant the injunction is also urged. This seems to rest upon two gmmds: First, that the act enjoined was done in a county other than that of the court which awarded the injunction forbidding it; second, that the objects of the two suits were not the same, and the parties were different. The first is based upon sections 4, 6 and 9 of chapter 133 of the Code. These sections read as follows:
Sec. 4. “Jurisdiction of a bill for an injunction to any judgment, act or proceeding shall be in the circuit court of the county in which the judgment is rendered, or the act or proceeding is to be done, or is doing, or is apprehended, and the*239 same may be granted to a judgment of a justice in like manner and with, like effect as to other judgments.”
Sec. 6. “Every judge of a circuit court shall have a general jurisdiction in awarding injunctions, whether the judgment or proceeding enjoined be in or out of his circuit, or the party against whose proceeding the injunction be asked, reside in or out of the same.”
Sec. 9. “Every order (awarding an injunction) made under the sixth or seventh sections, shall be directed to the clerk of such circuit court as has jurisdiction under the fourth section, and proceedings thereupon shall be as if the order had been made by such court, or the judge thereof.”
It must be admitted that the injunction which lies at the root of this proceeding differs from the ordinary injunction. It is an order made by the court to uphold, maintain and protect a jurisdiction which attaches upon grounds wholly independent of the injunction. A suit in equity to wind up the affairs of a corporation, under a resolution providing for its voluntary dissolution, is the exercise of a jurisdiction which is undoubted and unquestioned, where the facts and conditions are such as to call for its exercise, and it is not intimated that they did not do so in the case in which this proceeding originated. All the assets of the corporation so dissolved really constitute a trust fund for the benefit of its creditors and stockholders. The court takes jurisdiction for the purpose of settling all equities among the interested parties and for the administration of the fund. In doing so, it exercises a universally acknowledged and well grounded jurisdiction, and, if the parties interested and brought within the jurisdiction of the court, in respect to all matters involved in the case, were permitted to institute proceedings in other courts, by which the assets would be wholly or partially withdrawn from the court having rightful jurisdiction of the whole matter, and whose jurisdiction has' already attached, it would bo powerless to perform its functions, in respect to that fund, settle and determine the equities of the parties and administer the trust. Ho such intention can be imputed to the legislature. While section 4 of chapter 133 says, “Jurisdiction of a bill for an injunction to any judgment, act or proceeding shall be in the circuit court of the county in which the judgment is rendered, or the act or pro
Jurisdiction over all matters in the settlement of the affairs and business of the West Virginia Loan Company had been asserted by the circuit court of Ohio County, before any ac
As to the second ground assigned for want of jurisdiction, it is enough to say that, it being established that the circuit court of Ohio County had jurisdiction of the cause, to which the plaintiff in error was a party, and that he, in disobedience of an order of the court, prosecuted a suit in another county, the purpose and object of which was to trench upon the jurisdiction of the court having control of the case, it is not material whether the object of the second suit was the same as that of the first or not. The fact that the second suit had the effect to partially withdraw from the pending case in Ohio County a part of the subject matter to which its jurisdiction had attached, was sufficient to warrant that court in prohibiting him from aiding in the prosecution thereof. Disobedience of an order of a court, committed by a party to a suit in which the order is made, is an act of contempt which 'the court has power to punish. Such order and such disobedience may relate to some-
Finally,.it is insisted that the judgment should be reversed for irregularities, mere errors in the proceeding, and insufficiency of evidence. It is very well established that a contempt of court is in the nature of a criminal offense, that its punishment is criminal in its character, and that the evidence must bo sufficient to establish guilt beyond a reasonable doubt in order to convict. State v. Bridge Co., cited; Rule v. Rule, 24 W. Va. 279; State v. Irwin, 30 W. Va. 404; State v. Ralphsnyder, 34 W. Va. 352; State v. Cunningham, 33 W. Va. 607. The theory presented in the brief for plaintiff in error seems to be that it was necessary to impanel a jury and bring witnesses to testify in person. This position is not tenable. Where the courts have the right to summarily punish for contempt, they proceed without an indictment and without a jury. 7 Am. & Eng. Enc. Law, (2d Ed.) 66; 4 Enc. PI. & Pr. 771. By so proceeding, the constitutional guaranties relating to indictment and jury trial are not violated. 4 Enc. PL & Pr. 771; 7 Am. & Eng. Enc. Law (2d Ed.) 66. FTor is it necessary that the accused be confronted by the witnesses against him. In State v. Bridge Co., cited, the evidence was in the form of affidavits,
But there is an intimation in the brief that the circuit court of Mineral County, having before it the decree and injunction order, made by the circuit court of Ohio County, by allowing plaintiff in'error to proceed as he did, adjudicated his right to so proceed and thus took out of the act the element of disobedience. It is well known that the action of the court, in restraining a party to a cause pending in one court from prosecuting a suit in another court, does not,-in any way, affect the jurisdiction of such other court. -Therefore, the circuit court of Mineral County, being required to look no further than to ascertain its own jurisdiction in the premises and the rights of the parties as determined by the pleadings and evidence in the cause pending in it, had no ground upon which to refuse the relief asked. The injunction order laid before it, did not restrain the court from proceeding. It was not the duty of that court to determine whether Rredlock was bound to obey the order of the other court. That question was not submitted to that court. It related to Fredlock only and not to the court. Hence, the action qf the court in entering the decree determined nothing, as between Fredlock and the State or the circuit court of Ohio County. "The injunction is directed, not to the court, but to the litigant parties, and in no manner denies the jurisdiction of the legal tribunal. It merely seeks to control the per
Based upon this decree is the further argument that the element of intent to disobey the injunction order or to contemn the court is lacking. Where the act of contempt is disobedience of an order of the court, the contemnor is not permitted to say his violation of the mandate of the court was unintentional. In such case he cannot purge the contempt in that way. 4 Ency. PL & Pr. 791, and cases cited in note 3. The averment of want of intention only serves' to mitigate the punishment. Id. There are, no doubt, contempts which may be purged in that way, where the facts and circumstances support the averment and negative the idea of intentional wrong, but in eases of this kind, the gist of the offense is the doing of the act forbidden, and not the intent with which it is done.
Upon the evidence, the circuit court has found for the State, and it cannot be said that there is not sufficient evidence to support the finding. Ho ground upon which a reasonable doubt of guilt could be predicated is perceived. The judgment must be affirmed.
Affirmed.