43 Ind. App. 226 | Ind. Ct. App. | 1909
This is an appeal from the action of the lower court in sustaining appellees’ joint demurrer to appellant’s complaint. The complaint was a bill in equity 'against eighteen defendants, each o,p whom Lari brought an action at law ag^insL-appellanL to recover damages alleged to have been sustained by them respectively by reason of an explosion in
The first paragraph of the complaint alleges that the plaintiff is a corporation engaged in. the business of mining coal in Clay and Vigo counties, Indiana; that on and prior to December 5, 1906, it owned and operated the Rosebud mine in Vigo county, in which -were employed more than one hundred men. The method of reaching and working the coal, the driving of entries and the ventilation of the mine is explained, and details are given tending to show the manner in which an explosion which occurred on December 5, 1906, was caused. It is alleged that the mine was a pick mine, worked by “blasting off the solid;” that the miners placed five shots in holes drilled more than five feet into the solid coal, ■which were put off on December 5, 1906, at the time when the miners -were quitting their work and leaving for the day; that said shots so placed in the solid coal did not, bjr reason of that fact, expend their force in the coal, but the powder contained in said shots was blown out into the entries and rooms, burned and generated a gas, ■which, when mingled with the air, became highly explosive and dangerous; that said gas was ignited and exploded by other shots put off in said mine by the miners working therein immediately after putting off said “blown out” shots; that the explosion injured a number of miners then in the employ of this plaintiff and working in said mine; that each of the several defendants claims and asserts that ho was injured and burned bji reason of said explosion; that each has brought an anti on at law-a gainst. this plaintiff, seeking to recover damages for the injuries claimed to have been sustained by reason of said explosion, and that each of said defendants claims and asserts in his complaint that said explosion find injuries were the. result of negligence on the part of this .plaintiff, in that this plaintiff had not reg
Following these allegations it is averred that separate actions against plaintiff have been brought, and are now pending in the Putnam Circuit Court, by Alexander Lawson, Tom Meeley, Elza Danhour, Lewis Smith, Samuel James, David Morgan, Thomas Travis, Lewis James, Riley Rinehart, Edward Haverkamp, Josef Kowandy, Karl Ilaverlcamp, William Yemm, Samuel Darby and William Travis, and in the Clay Circuit court by George Ambrazatis, Emery Le May, Frank Giezk and Joseph Grizikowski. Plaintiff says that it believes the expense of litigating the several actions separately will aggregate more than $30,000, and be ruinous to it; that each of said several defendants is insolvent, and plaintiff will be wholly unable to recover any costs or expenses laid out and expended by it in the defense of said causes; that the trial of__all the causes would consume a
The second paragraph of complaint differs from the first in that the following is inserted in the prayer thereof: “Or if the court believes that it would be unfair to said several defendants to deny them the right of trial by jury, that the court as a court of equity in the hearing and determination of this cause herein, determine the same as a court of equity, referring such matters involved herein to a jury for its advice, as the court in its judgment may deem proper and fair to all said several defendants.”
The third paragraph contains the prayer: “Or if, in the opinion and judgment of the court, the several defendants herein should not be denied their right to .have their separate and several actions tried by this court or jury as actions at law, then that this court proceed to hear and determine either by the court or a jury, if requested by the parties, all said several claims of said several defendants
"We now come to the consideration of the first paragraph and the question involved — have factgJjaen pleaded which authorize the intervention of an equity court to prevent by injunction a multiplicity of actions? The question presented is one of the most difficult and perplexing in equity jurisprudence. In view of its importance, and the fact that upon the path chosen in this case the future trend of decisions in this State is likely to depend, a reyiew pf the SQurces andjxf the later cases will be made.
The application of the doctrine that equity will interfere to prevent a multiplicity of actions has not been uniform, and there are many conflicts in the cases as to who') e-juilv
The case of Sheffield Water-Works Co. v. Yeomans (1866), L. R. 2 Ch. 8, a more modern English ease also cited and relied upon by appellant, is likewise not an analogous case. There the reservoir of the Sheffield Water-Works Company had burst and occasioned an inundation, by which the property of 7,315 persons had been injured. Under an act of parliament, passed to meet the needs of the case, certificates for damages were to be issued to the property holders, which entitled the holder, after compliance with certain formalities, to a claim against the company in the nature of a judgment. A difference of opinion afterwards arose between the commissioners as to whether their powers had not expired; and a large number (1,500) of certificates were delivered by some of the commissioners to Yeomans, who was the town clerk, for distribution. A bill was then filed against Yeomans and five of the persons named in the certificates on behalf of themselves and of all others; and a demurrer to this bill was overruled. “It seems to me,” said Lord Chancellor Chelmsford, “to be a very fit case, by analogy, at least, to a bill of peace, for a court of equity to interpose and prevent the unnecessary expense and litigation which would be thus occasioned, and to decide once for all the validity or invalidity of the certificates upon which the claims of all the parties depend.” The question involved was the validity of the certificates, not of the injured persons ’ demands. In the validity of the certificates they had a community of interest, and the injunction was properly granted.
All the text-books and encyclopedias have found it difficult to state a rule covering the law -with regard to a multiplicity of actions. In 16 Cyc., 65, title, Equity, it is said: “The nature of the relationship which must subsist between the claims of the .numerous persons cannot be stated with
*245 “Lead, kindly light, amid the encircling gloom,
Lead thou me on; * * *
I do not ask to see the distant scene;
One step enough for me. ’ ’
It is held that-eqifity-wffl-ilfl^Tiris'dietio^ on the g-round of preventing a__jnultiplicity of actions only where it ap
If the case is properly one of equitable cognizance, the defendants cannot resist the proceedings on the single ground that it deprives them of a trial by jury. But such fact will be considered in deciding whether the taking of jurisdiction by an equity court will make for justice. In Boonville Nat. Bank v. Blakey (1906), 166 Ind. 427, it is said that “it involves, if carried to its logical result, the denial of a jury trial;” and, while jurisdiction was not refused on that ground alone, it seems to have been given weight.
The case of Southern Steel Co. v. Hopkins (1908), (Ala.), 47 South. 274, illustrates the possible extreme which may be attained. The facts in that ease were that 110 persons were killed in an explosion in a coal mine, and that the administrators of said “unfortunate persons” brought several actions against the company owning the mine, insisting that its negligence was the proximate cause of the accident. The company by its bill, in effect, says: “If these actions are allowed to proceed at law, it will be ruined in costs and expenses, though it be successful in every suit; that the plaintiffs are all insolvent, and thus could not pay the taxed costs against them, should they be unsuccessful; that the suits are pending in different courts, and will be called for trial in different courts at the same time; that by reason of this, and the necessity of having the same witnesses in each trial, it is impossible for the defendants to present a proper defense to these multitudes of claims. The appellant says, moreover, that it has one and the same and a perfect defense or defenses to all these suits, which will be put forward in each case, and which will be determinative of all alike; and on this ground it is insisted that this is a plain ease for the application of the jurisdiction of a court of equity to avoid a multiplicity of suits. [After stating which the writer of the opinion says:] We agree with this contention on-principle.” The principle stated in the preceding portion of the opinion is “that there is no plain, adequate, complete and practical remedy for appellant’s protection in the courts of law.” The effect upon the appellees, each of whom was presumably seeking to recover damages for the benefit of those of kin and dependent upon one of the “unfortunate persons” killed, was not considered in any way. It was enough for the court to know that it could, by declaring the case one of equitable jurisdiction, render the constitutional
The case of Crawford v. Mobile, etc., R. Co., supra, was one in which a number of persons who had exécuted notes to induce a railroad to build its line through their town joined in an action for the cancelation and surrender of said notes, on the ground that they were procured by fraud. No reference is made in that opinion to the case of Tribette v. Illinois Cent. R. Co., supra, which consists of two paragraphs. The facts involved were wholly different. The doctrine declared by Pomeroy as applicable to the ease then before the Mississippi court is undoubtedly sound. The method by which the unanswerable logic of the case of Tribette v. Illinois Cent. R. Co., supra, was avoided in Southern Steel Co. v. Hopkins, supra, is disingenuous, to say the least, and this especially in view of the fact that Illinois Cent. R. Co. v. Garrison (1902), 81 Miss. 257, 32 South. 996, 95 Am. St. 469, which is cited in Crawford v. Mobile, etc., R. Vo., supra, and must therefore have been called to the attention of the Alabama court, not only approves Tribette v. Illinois Cent. R. Co., supra, but differentiates it from the case then being considered, upon grounds applicable to the facts involved in the case of Crawford v. Mobile, etc., R. Co., supra.
It ought to be unnecessary to say that the inability of appellees to pay judgments or costs which might be rendered against them cannot be considered as a reason for invoking equity jurisdiction. The law does not limit a man’s privilege to establish his rights by his financial standing, and justice in due and orderly course is as much the right of the poor as it is of the rich.
Judgment affirmed.