Case v. Beauregard
| Decision Date | 01 October 1879 |
| Citation | 25 L.Ed. 1004,101 U.S. 688 |
| Parties | CASE v. BEAUREGARD |
| Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
APPEAL from the Circuit Court of the United States for the District of Louisiana.
The facts out of which this case arises are stated in Case v. Beauregard, 99 U. S. 119. The bill in each case is in every essential particular the same, except that here the additional allegation is made that the complainant, as receiver, had brought an action at law and recovered judgment against Beauregard and May, as partners; that Graham, the other partner, was beyond the reach of process; and that an execution upon the judgment was returned nulla bona. The defendants pleaded the decree in the former suit in bar, and the court, finding that the matter set up in the plea was sustained by the evidence, dismissed the bill. Case appealed.
Submitted on printed arguments by Mr. Charles Case for the appellant, and by Mr. Henry C. Miller for the appellee.
That the complainant's bill exhibits the same cause of action which was set forth in his former bill against these defendants, and that he now seeks the same relief as that which was sought in his first suit, is quite apparent. The identity of the claims and equities asserted, as well as of the relief asked, is shown by an inspection of the records, and it is hardly denied. The object of both suits was to follow and subject to the payment of a debt due by the partnership of May, Graham, & Beauregard to the First National Bank of New Orleans, certain property alleged to have formerly belonged to the partnership, but which before the first bill was filed had been transferred to the railroad company. The claim made in each of the cases is that the bank has a privilege or lien upon the property for the partnership debt; that the railroad company acquired the property with knowledge of the existence of the lien, and that it is charged with a trust in favor of the bank. The decree dismissing the former bill must, therefore, be a bar to the present suit (it having been pleaded), unless the court which dismissed it was without jurisdiction of the case.
In the former bill it was not averred that judgment at law had ever been recovered against the partnership for the debt, and that an execution had been issued thereon and returned fruitless. The present bill contains such an averment. It is alleged that judgments at law were obtained against two of the members of the partnership on or about the twenty-sixth day of February, 1873, which was after the decree dismissing the former bill, and that executions issued upon those judgments had been returned that no property could be found. The complainant insists that this averment not having been made in the former bill, the decree of dismissal, though unqualified, cannot be regarded as a final adjudication of the equities between the parties, and that it is, therefore, no bar to the present suit.
It is no doubt generally true that a creditor's bill to subject his debtor's interests in property to the payment of the debt must show that all remedy at law had been exhausted. And generally, it must be averred that judgment has been recovered for the debt; that execution has been issued, and that it has been returned nulla bona. The reason is that until such a showing is made, it does not appear, in most cases, that resort to a court of equity is necessary, or in other words, that the creditor is remediless at law. In some cases, also, such an averment is necessary to show that the creditor has a lien upon the property he seeks to subject to the payment of his demand. The rule is a familiar one, that a court of equity will not entertain a case for relief where the complainant has an adequate legal remedy. The complaining party must, therefore, show that he had done all that he could do at law to obtain his rights.
But, after all, the judgment and fruitless execution are only evidence that his legal remedies have been exhausted, or that he is without remedy at law. They are not the only possible means of proof. The necessity of resort to a court of equity may be made otherwise to appear. Accordingly the rule, though general, is not without many exceptions. Neither law nor equity requires a meaningless form, 'Bona, sed impossibilia non cogit lex.' It has been decided that where it appears by the bill that the debtor is insolvent and that the issuing of an execution would be of no practical utility, the issue of an execution is not a necessary prerequisite to equitable interference. Turner v. Adams, 46 Mo. 95; Postlewait & Creagan and Keeler v. Howes, 3 Iowa, 365; Ticonie Bank v. Harvey, 16 id. 141; Botsford v. Beers, 11 Conn. 369; Payne v. Sheldon, 63 Barb (N. Y.) 169....
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SLAZENGERS v. United States
...Moore, supra. Erroneous judgments and judgments based on mistaken law as well as correct judgments are res judicata. Case v. Beauregard, 101 U.S. 688, 692, 25 L.Ed. 1004; Equitable Life Assurance Society v. Gillan, D.C., 70 F.Supp. 640, Under the express terms of the statute, it was the col......
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Barrie v. United Rys. Co. of St. Louis
...debtor, received under such an assignment or transfer, as a trustee for the benefit of creditors" — citing and quoting Case v. Beauregard, 101 U. S. 688, 25 L. Ed. 1004, as deciding that "whenever a creditor has a trust in his favor, or a lien upon property for the debt due him, he may go i......
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Motlow v. Southern Holding & Securities Corporation
...a judgment at law and procuring an execution to be returned unsatisfied, may maintain a creditor's bill. See Case v. Beauregard, 101 U.S. 688, 690, 691, 25 L.Ed. 1004. The general rule to which reference has been made, its historical background, and the prerequisites to the maintenance of s......
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Heiser v. Woodruff
...judicata in a suit between the same parties in a federal court. Cromwell v. County of Sac, 94 U.S. 351, 24 L.Ed. 195; Case v. Beauregard, 101 U.S. 688, 25 L.Ed. 1004; Baltimore S.S. Co. v. Phillips, 274 U.S. 316, 47 S.Ct. 600, 71 L.Ed. 1069; Grubb v. Public Utilities Comm., 281 U.S. 470, 50......