John Shields, Appellant v. Isaac Thomas, and Mary, His Wife, Nancy Pirtle, John Goldsbury, Thomas Starks, and Elizabeth, His Wife, and James Pickett, and Ann, His Wife

• Decision Date: 01 December 1855
• Citation: 59 U.S. 253,18 How. 253,15 L.Ed. 368
• Parties: JOHN G. SHIELDS, APPELLANT, v. ISAAC THOMAS, AND MARY, HIS WIFE, NANCY PIRTLE, JOHN B. GOLDSBURY, THOMAS STARKS, AND ELIZABETH, HIS WIFE, AND JAMES PICKETT, AND ANN, HIS WIFE
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

59 U.S. 253

18 How. 253

15 L.Ed. 368

JOHN G. SHIELDS, APPELLANT, v. ISAAC THOMAS, AND MARY, HIS WIFE, NANCY PIRTLE, JOHN

B. GOLDSBURY, THOMAS STARKS, AND ELIZABETH, HIS WIFE,

AND JAMES PICKETT, AND ANN, HIS WIFE.

December Term, 1855

THIS was an appeal from the district court of the United States, for the northern District of Iowa.

The case is stated in the opinion of the court.

It was argued by Mr. Gillett, for the appellant, and Mr. Platt Smith, for appellees.

Mr. Gillett made nine points. Those which are touched upon in the opinion of the court were the following:——

2. The bill is multifarious, and therefore bad. 1 Dan. Ch. Pr. 384; Cooper's Eq. Pl. 182; Mitford, 146-7; 8 Peters, 123.

7. A judgment against persons not within the jurisdiction of the court, and who were not served with process, and who did not appear to the action, is null and void.

If a court in one State can render effective judgments against persons in other States, who are neither served with process nor appear to the action, there will be no security for the citizen. The mere shadow of claims might ripen into valid judgments, without the defendant having an opportunity to defend. No authoritative court has ever held such judgments valid. The following cases are conclusive upon this point. Ewer v. Coffin, 1 Cushing, 24; Hickey v. Smith, 1 Eng. 456; 3 id. 318, 324; Woodruff v. Taylor, 20 Vermont, 65; Davis v. Smith, 5 Geo. 274; Dunn v. Hall, 8 Blkf. 32, 335; 11 How. 165; 2 M'Lean, 473; 3 J. J. Marshall, 600; 2 B. Monroe, 453; 3 B. Monroe, 218; 6 J. J. Marshall, 578; 8 B. Monroe, 137.

8. A judgment or decree void as to one or more of the parties is void as to all. 6 Pick. 232; 12 Johns. 434; 11 N. H. 299; 14 Ohio, 413.

Upon the principal points in the case, Mr. Platt Smith said:

We take the ground that the court in Kentucky had jurisdiction of the subject-matter, and of John G. Shields, and that consequently their decree cannot be inquired into, but full faith and credit are to be given to it, as is provided by the constitution and act of congress of the United States. Cons. U. S. art. 4, § 1; act con. 26th May, 1790; 1 U. S. Stat. at L., 122. That as to James Shields and Henry Yater, who were non-residents, and proceeded against as such, the Kentucky decree would not be binding on them except in the State of Kentucky, for the courts of that State did not obtain jurisdiction over their persons. Story's Confl. of Laws, § 569; Williams v. Preston, 3 J. J. Marshall, 600; Cobb v. Haynes, 8 B. Monroe, 139. Still, that could not affect the validity of the decree as to John G. Shields, for the court had jurisdiction of his person and of the subject-matter, namely, the settlement of the estate of John Goldsbury, deceased; consequently, their judgment or decree is not void, no matter whether it was right or wrong to join Henry Yater and James Shields in the rendition of the decree.

The present action is not multifarious. There is no mixture of different claims. Although the decree is virtually several, yet it is in fact only one thing, and grows out of one subject-matter; a trial of the question as to one complainant is a trial as to the whole.

The remedy at law is uncertain and would have caused a multiplicity of suits, for each complainant would, at law, have been obliged to bring a suit against John G. Shields; and to have sued at law would have raised the objection, first, that no action at law could be had on the decree of a court of equity; Hugh v. Higgs and wife, 8 Wheat. R. 697; Carpenter et al. v. Thornton, 3 B. & Al. 52; Elliott v. Ray, 2 Blackf. R. 31; and second, if the whole had been attempted in one suit, that there was no mutuality between the plaintiffs; Gould's Pl. 197; 2 Saund. R. 117, n. 2; and, third, if there had been several suits, then, that several distinct actions could not be brought on one decree.

The uncertainty, then, of an action or actions at law was sufficient ground for giving to a court of equity jurisdiction of the case; Story's Eq. Pl. § 473; and the avoidance of multiplicity of suits was another ground; 1 Story's Eq. Julis. § 64, k., also 67; Jesus College v. Bloom, 3 Atk. 263.

Mr. Justice DANIEL delivered the opinion of the court.

Upon an appeal from a decree in chancery by the district court of the northern district of Iowa.

This case, although upon the record a good deal extended in volume, is in effect narrowed to the questions of law arising upon the pleadings.

The facts of the case, so far as a statement of these is necessary to an accurate comprehension of the legal questions discussed and decided, were as follows: In the year 1839, a portion of the appellees, as heirs and distributees of John Goldsbury, by their bill filed in the circuit court for Grayson county, in the State of Kentucky, alleged that their ancestor died in Nelson county, in the State aforesaid, intestate, leaving a widow, Eleanor Goldsbury, and four children—three daughters, Elizabeth, Nancy, and Mary, and one son, Bennett Goldsbury—all these children infants at the time of their father's death. That John Goldsbury died possessed of one male and one female slave, and of other personal property, and perfectly free from debt. That the widow Eleanor Goldsbury, who was appointed the administratrix of her husband, and as such took possession of the estate within a year from the period of his death, intermarried with one James Shields, in conjunction with whom she had continued to hold the entire estate, and to apply it to their exclusive use, without having made any settlement or distribution thereof. The bill further charged, that Shields and wife, after enjoying the services and hires of the male slave for several years, had ultimately sold him, and that, in the year 1818, they removed from Kentucky to the State of Missouri, carrying with them the female slave belonging to the estate of John Goldsbury, together with her descendants, seven in number, and of great value; that upon application so said Shields and wife, for a surrender of those slaves, and for an account of the estate of John Goldsbury, so possessed and used by them, this request was refused, and that, by a fraudulent confederacy between Shields and wife, and John G. Shields, their son, and Henry Yates, their son-in-law, the slaves had by the son and son-in-law been secreted, carried off and sold, in parts unknown to the complainants, and the other personal estate of John Goldsbury fraudulently disposed of in like manner. The bill also made defendants the representatives of the surety of Eleanor Goldsbury, in her bond given as administratrix of her first husband. The bill also made defendants though not in an adversary interest, Isaac Thomas, and Mary, his wife, Elizabeth, John and Ann Goldsbury, which said Elizabeth, John, and Ann, are the infant children of Bennett Goldsbury, son of John Goldsbury, deceased.

After the filing of the bill in this case, it appearing to the satisfaction of the court that James Shields, and Eleanor, his wife, Elizabeth, John, and Ann Goldsbury, John Shields, and Henry Yates, were not inhabitants of the State of Kentucky, there was, on the 25th of December, 1839, under the authority of the statute of Kentucky with reference to absent defendants, issued by the court what is termed a warning order, by which the absent defendants were required to appear at the next April term of the court, and answer the complainants' bill.

Afterwards, namely, on the 28th of April, 1840, the absent defendants still not appearing, under the like authority of the law of the State, the clerk of the court, by its order, filed on behalf of those defendants a traverse denying the allegations of the complainants' bill.

Subsequently to this proceeding, namely, on the 30th of October, 1841, the said John G. Shields filed his answer to the complainants' bill, thereby recognizing as to himself personally the jurisdiction of the court.

Upon these pleadings, the cause after an examination of witnesses and upon a report of the master, came to a hearing before the circuit court, and this tribunal decreed against the representative of the surety in the administration bond of Mrs. Goldsbury, (afterwards, Mrs. Shields,) and against James Shields her husband, she having departed this life, John G. Shields, the son, and Henry Yates, the son-in-law, in favor of the heirs and distributees of John Goldsbury, the portions reported to be due to them respectively of the general effects of John Goldsbury, deceased, and of the values and hires of the slaves. Upon an appeal taken from this decree to the supreme court of Kentucky, it being the opinion of the latter that, under the circumstances, the surety in the administration bond should not be charged, and also that an amount equal to the price of the slave Mat, sold by the administratrix had her husband, and to the hires of the remaining slaves, had been properly applied to the dower of the widow and to the use of the heirs of John Goldsbury, it ordered the decree of the circuit court to be re-formed in conformity with the opinion of the supreme court. By a final decree of the circuit court of Grayson county, made on the 28th day of October, 1846, the bill as to the representative of the surety in the administration bond was dismissed, and the defendants, James Shields, John G. Shields, and Henry Yates, and each of them, who had, by fraudulent combination, secreted and carried off, and disposed of the descendants of the female slave, originally the property of John Goldsbury, were decreed and ordered to pay to the heirs of said John Goldsbury severally, the amounts ascertained to be due to them as their respective and separate portions of the value of the slaves thus fraudulently disposed of, without any allowance for the hires of those slaves.

To obtain the benefit of this last decree, the suit now before us was instituted in the names of the appellees, Isaac Thomas and Mary, his wife, Uriah Pirtle and Nancy, his...