Hughes v. Carson

• Decision Date: 20 December 1886
• Citation: 2 S.W. 441,90 Mo. 399
• Parties: Hughes et al. v. Carson, Appellant
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

2 S.W. 441

90 Mo. 399

Hughes et al. v. Carson, Appellant

Supreme Court of Missouri

December 20, 1886

Appeal from Montgomery Circuit Court. -- Hon. Elijah Robinson Judge.

Affirmed.

Macfarlane & Trimble for appellant.

(1) At common law recovery of rents and profits by way of damages in an ejectment suit was not authorized. Sedgwick & Wait on Trial of Title to Land, sec. 647; Tyler on Ejectment, 838. (2) After recovery in ejectment, trespass for mesne rents and profits was the remedy. Sedgwick & Wait on Trial of Title sec. 648; Tyler on Ejectment, 838, et seq. (3) The statutes of this state provide for joining in a suit in ejectment a claim for damages, rents and profits. R. S., sec. 2252. (4) A claim for improvements can only be made after a judgment for possession and before eviction. R. S., sec. 2259; Malone v. Stretch, 69 Mo. 25; Henderson v. Langley, 76 Mo. 226. (5) In ejectment if plaintiff prevail he shall recover rents and profits by way of damages. R. S. 1879, sec 2252. (6) Plaintiff may be at liberty to sue for possession without making a claim for rents, and after recovery of possession proceed in trespass for mesne rents and profits [Vandevoort v. Gould, 36 N.Y. 465], but we think, having elected to join a claim for rents, the judgment is a bar to any other action. Walker v. Mitchell, 18 B. Monroe, 541; Tyler on Ejectment, 737. The whole statute on the subject must be construed together. Our Supreme Court has construed section 2259, so as to require a claim for improvements to be made in the same court and before eviction. 69 Mo. 25; 76 Mo. 227. Trespass for mesne rents and profits will only lie after eviction. To give the statute any construction other than that a judgment against a tenant is a bar to a subsequent proceeding against the landlord, would deprive the landlord of the remedy given under section 2259, et seq. (7) If the landlord can be held as a joint trespasser so as to authorize a proceeding against him for mesne rents and profits, under a judgment in ejectment against his tenant, then he could be joined as a defendant in the ejectment suit, and plaintiff would be deprived of none of his rights. It is the usual practice to join the landlord in case a recovery of damages is expected and the tenant is insolvent.

Thos. H. Musick for respondents.

It is a well established principle that, unless clearly inconsistent, a statute will not abrogate the common law by inference. Section 2252 provides for uniting the action of ejectment and mesne profits, but there is nothing in that section inconsistent with the right of separate actions. In Lee v. Bowman, 55 Mo. 400, Judge Sherwood seems to hold that the actions, when against the same party, must be united; but in Atkison v. Henry, 80 Mo. 670, Judge Hough reserves the point. It is another accepted principle that a litigant may pursue all the remedies he has, but can have only one satisfaction. On a joint note there may be several actions, but only one satisfaction. Sections 2243 and 2244 do not seem to authorize the ejectment against the landlord, nor to authorize plaintiff to bring him in on motion. And such is the holding of the Supreme Court. Sutton v. Casseleggi, 77 Mo. 397. Then, as the plaintiff cannot make the landlord a party in the ejectment suit, he must, when the tenant proves to be insolvent, be permitted to maintain this action against the landlord, or lose his rents and profits entirely. And neither in principle nor justice is there any reason why the fruitless efforts to recover these from the tenant in the ejectment should be allowed to shield the landlord in a separate action. On principle it is just this: We have a just and valid claim against two parties who cannot be united by us in the first action brought, and appellant says, because we tried to make our claim out of the defendant in that first action, and failed, we shall, on account of that effort, be barred of our action and remedy against the other party liable. Such a defence seems almost like quibbling, and worthy a penalty for vexatious litigation.

OPINION

Sherwood, J.

The question presented by this record is whether an action will lie against a landlord for mesne rents and profits, after judgment in...