59 How. Pr. 476 | NY | 1880
The defendant, having refused or neglected to obey an important order of the court, was in contempt, and liable to punishment by reason thereof. The punishment inflicted by the court was by an order made in the cause, to strike out the answer that had been put in by him, and to direct a reference to take proof of the matters stated in the order; the reference to proceed as if there had been no answer put in.
It is claimed that the court had no power to make that order; that every defendant has a vested right to make a defense to any action or suit or legal proceeding begun against him, and that he cannot be deprived of it.
It is conceded by the defendant that the Supreme Court, on its equity side, has all the power and authority that formerly existed in Chancery in England and was continuously exercised by it. "The rule there must be the rule here," says Chancellor KENT, "for I take this occasion to observe, that I consider myself bound by those principles which were known and established as law in the courts of equity in England at the time of the institution of this court." (Manning v. Manning, 1 Johns. Ch. 527-9.) It is not to be denied that a court of equity may refuse to a defendant in contempt, the benefit of proceedings in it, when asked by him as a favor, until he has purged himself of his contempt. (See Brinkley v. Brinkley,
We are brought to the conclusion that there has long been exerted by the Court of Chancery in England the power to refuse to hear the defendant when he was in contempt of the court by disobeying its orders, and that that power was in the Courts of Chancery of this country.
We do not think that the cases of Wayland v. Tysen (45 Y. 282), and Thompson v. Erie Railway (id. 471) and others of like result, are in the way of this conclusion. They were not cases of contempt, nor were they equity cases. Besides, there the answer was stricken out, with no loophole left for relief to the defendant. It is always in the power of the defendant, in a case like this in hand, to apply to the court and show that the order was irregularly made, or for leave to purge himself of the contempt and be let in again to make his defense; Brinkley v.Brinkley, supra.
The order should be affirmed.
All concur.
Order affirmed. *265