Knox County v. Harshman

• Decision Date: 27 January 1890
• Citation: 133 U.S. 152,10 S.Ct. 257,33 L.Ed. 586
• Parties: KNOX COUNTY v. HARSHMAN
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

133 U.S. 152

10 S.Ct. 257

33 L.Ed. 586

KNOX COUNTY v. HARSHMAN.

January 27, 1890.

MILLER, J., dissents.

[Statement of Case from pages 152-154 intentionally omitted] James Carr, for appellant.

F. K. Skinker, for appellee.

Mr. Justice GRAY, after stating the facts as above, delivered the opinion of the court.

A court of equity does not interfere with judgments at law, unless the complainant has an equitable defense of which he could not avail himself at law, or had a good defense at law which he was prevented from availing himself of by fraud or accident, unmixed with negligence of himself or his agents. Insurance Co. v. Hodgson, 7 Cranch, 332, 336; Hendrickson v. Hinckley, 17 How. 443, 445; Crim v. Handley, 94 U. S. 652; Phillips v. Negley, 117 U. S. 665, 675, 6 Sup. Ct. Rep. 901. In the case before us, the bill in equity of the judgment debtor contains no allegation of any fraud on the part of the judgment creditor or his agents. The allegation, that the record of the judgment as it stands is a gross fraud upon the judgment debtor, is in terms, as it must be in legal effect, limited to the particulars specified in the bill. U.S. v. Atherton, 102 U. S. 372; Ambler v. Choteau, 107 U.S. 586, 590, 591, 1 Sup. Ct. Rep. 556. The grounds assigned for the interposition of equity reduce themselves to two.

The first ground is that the allegations in the petition on which the judgment was recovered were false, especially in that they alleged that the subscription was made under the General Statutes of Missour, authorizing the levy of a tax sufficient to pay the amount of the bonds and coupons. But this ground is fully met and disposed of by the opinion delivered by Mr. Justice MATTHEWS in Harshman v. Knox Co., 122 U. S. 306, 7 Sup. Ct. Rep. 1171, in which it was said: 'By the terms of the judgment in favor of the relator it was determined that the bonds sued on were issued under the authority of a statute which prescribed no limit to the rate of taxation for their payment. In such cases, the law which authorizes the issue of bonds gives also the means of payment by taxation. The findings in the judgment on that point are conclusive. They bind the respondents in their official capacity, as well as the county itself.' 122 U. S. 319, 320, 7 Sup. Ct. Rep. 1177.

The other ground relied on is that the county had no notice of the commencement of the action againstit. The bill of the county and the argument of its counsel proceed on two hardly consistent suppositions,—that the clerk of the county court was never served with process; and that he was negligent in not...