114 Ala. 563 | Ala. | 1896
We are not of opinion that the change in the language of the paper dated January 16, 1894, for which the bill prays by way of reforming the 'writings now evidencing the contract between the parties, would be without effect upon the legal construction and meaning of the writings. The two. papers, of January 8th and 16th, respectively, as .acted upon the -former by the latter, import a promise by Stevens to pay Hertzler $25.92 per share for.forty-nine shares of certain stock, belonging to Hertzler, but then in the possession of Stevens, unless the same should be returned to Hertzler within three months from the date of the first instrument, as was held when this cause was here’ on appeal from the circuit court. — Stevens v. Hertzler, 109 Ala. 423. But if the paper of January 16th should be reformed as prayed in the bill,' it would, we think, be nothing more than a receipt by Stevens for the stock from .Hertzler, accompanied by or containing -a recital that the former was to hold it subject to the option agreement of January 8th, intended, not to .evidence a contract of sa]e or return, but merely to exclude the idea that the delivery to Stevens should be either an election by him to purchase under the option or a rescission of the contract .giving him the option to purchase within three months. So that, if .the writings be reformed as proposed by the bill, Stevens would not have become liable for the agreed price of the stock, unless he had within the time limited affirmatively .elected to.ay ail himself of the.option to'buy,
The general rule by which courts of equity are guided when their powers are invoked to the injunction of judgments rendered by courts of law, is thus stated by Chief Justice Marshall : “Without attempting to draw any precise line to which courts of equity will advance, and which they cannot pass, in restraining parties from availing themselves of judgments obtained at law, it may safely be said, that any fact which proves it to be against conscience to execute a judgment, and of which the injured party could not have availed himself in a court of law, or of which he might have availed himself at law, but was prevented by fraud or accident, unmixed with any fault on the part of himself or his agents, will justify an application to a court of chancery.” — Marine Insurance Co. v. Hodgson, 7 Cranch, 332. The same general doctrine is condensed in statement by Justice Curtis in Hendrickson v. Hinckley, 17 How. 443, thus : “A court'of equity does not interfere with a judgment at law unless the complainant has an equitable defense, of which he could not avail himself at law, because it did not amount to a legal defense, or had a good defense at law, which he was prevented of availing himself of by fraud or accident, unmixed with negligence of himseif or-his agents.” And this exposition of the principle is universally accepted by courts and text-writers. — 2 Story Eq. Jur., § 887 ; 1 High on Inj., § 114; 1 Beach on Inj., § 615.
The cases in which equity will interfere by injunction, and 'restrain an action at law, either before or after judgment, are reducible, says Mr. Pomeroy, to three general classes : “1. Where the controversy, in addition to its legal aspect, involves some equitable estate, right, or interest which is exclusively cognizable by a court of equity, so that a complete determination of the issues cannot be made by a court of law, it is well settled that equity not only may, but must, interfere at the suit of
It is entirely obvious that the present case — for the reformation of a written contract upon which the judgment, at law was rendered, so that as reformed it would not support such judgment, and for the perpetual injunction of the judgment — belongs not to the second or third class just defined, but to the first, the fact relied on being one “which proves it to be against conscience to execute the judgment,” and of which complainant could not avail himself at law, and which, if established, would entitle him to affirmative equitable relief of a nature to clothe him with a legal right destructive of respondent’s cause of action both in equity and at law.
There are a very great number of adjudications to the effect that a defendant at law, having a defense there available in bar of the legal action but failing to present it, must, on coming into equity for an injunction of the judgment, both allege and prove that his failure to defend was due purely to accident, mistake or fraud wholly unmixed with laches on his part; but neither these authorities, nor the principle upon which they proceed can have any application to a case of the first, class as defined by Mr. Pomeroy, such as this one is, where the very ground and reason for resorting to equity is that the defense relied upon it not cognizable at law at all,
We have considered this case somewhat at length because upon it reliance is chiefly had to support the decree below. Jt really belongs to the third catego'ry stated above, and rests upon principles having no application to cases of the class to which the one we have in hand belongs.
Another line of cases relied on is illustrated by that of McCollum v. Prewitt, 37 Ala. 573. These hold that a defendant, after judgment, can not invoke the injunctive power of chancery, when his defense is legal and failed of being made in the law court, because the evidence to support it could not be secured except by a bill of discovery or through interrogatories under the statute. These cases belong clearly to the third class defined above, and they proceed simply upon the ground that the complainant was negligent in and about making his defense at law, for that he should have taken the necessary steps to procure the testimony essential thereto, either by filing interrogatories to his adversary, or by filing a bill of discovery against him before going to trial in the action at law. They can have no bearing upon a case such as this, where the defense is purely equitable, and not available at all at law. The remaining cases and texts cited by appellee are merely declaratory of the rule applicable to cases in which the complainant had a legal defense against the judgment he seeks to enjoin, and are not pertinent to the case at bar. It is believed that no case can be found which holds that a defendant at law, having only a purely equitable defense to the cause of action stated in the complaint, is barred of his equity by the mere fact that he defers filing his bill until judgment has been entered against him at law. To the contrary, it would seem that this court, at least, is committed to the doctrine, that in such case the pass
The other case is that of Bryan v. Cowart, 21 Ala. 92. The object of the bill in that case was to reform a deed by inserting a defeasance upon the payment of money, thereby converting it into a mortgage, and to enjoin a judgment at law which had been recovered as for purchase money constituting the consideration of the deed. The bill showed that complainant, who was the grantee in the instrument and defendant in the action at law, sought to prove in that action that the paper was not a deed, but a mortgage, and hence that he did not owe the plaintiff as for purchase money of the land, but this
“This case is wholly different, ivhen viewed in all its aspects, from that large class of cases to which we are cited by the counsel for the plaintiffs in error, and which determine the rules that govern the conduct of the chancellor, in granting injunctions to judgments at law, for the purpose of enabling the defendant to wage, in equity, a legal defense, which he had been prevented from setting up on the trial at law by fraud, or accident, or the act of' the opposite-party, unmixed with any fault or negligeuce of his own.” (The italicization is ours).
We think we need say no more in support of our conclusion, that where a defendant at law has, as Stevens had, a purely equitable defense, which the court of law can not recognize or enforce, and especially when he is entitled to some affirmative equitable relief — as the reformation of a writing — which will clothe him with a legal right, laches are not imputed to him in consequence of, nor is he estopped by, the mere fact that judgment passes against him at law before he invokes the powers of equity to a reformation of the writing and an injunction of further proceedings at law.
Something is said in the case about complainant’s acquiescence in the construction put on the contract by the
The bill was not open to the objections made by the demurrer and motion to dismiss for the want of equity. The decree sustaining the demurrer and the motion and dismissing the bill, is reversed. A decree' will be here rendered overruling the demurrer and motion to dismiss ; and allowing the respondent thirty days in which to answer the bill. The cause is reihanded.
Reversed, rendered and remanded.