Meyers v. Block Same v. Isaacs

• Decision Date: 31 January 1887
• Citation: 30 L.Ed. 642,7 S.Ct. 525,120 U.S. 206
• Parties: MEYERS and others, Copartners, etc., v. BLOCK. SAME v. ISAACS
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

120 U.S. 206

7 S.Ct. 525

30 L.Ed. 642

MEYERS and others, Copartners, etc., v. BLOCK.

SAME

v. ISAACS.

January 31, 1887.

John H. Kennard and W. W. Howe, for plaintiffs in error.

Gus A. Breaux, for defendants in error.

BRADLEY, J.

These are suits on injunction bonds, given by the plaintiffs in error to the defendants in error, respectively, Friedlander being a surety. On the twentieth of January, 1874, Meyers & Levi, Lehman, Godchaux & Co., and Michael Frank filed a petition in the district court of the United States for the district of Louisiana to have their alleged debtors, Block Bros., a firm composed of Simon and Joseph Block, declared bankrupts, and the petition charged, among other things, that the alleged bankrupts had, on the ninth of January preceding, sold a certain store of goods, situated at Opelousas, to Solomon Isaacs, their brother-in-law, with intent to defraud their creditors. At, or immediately after, the filing of the petition in bankruptcy, the petitioning creditors filed a special petition for an injunction to prevent Isaacs from disposing of the store or its contents. A similar petition was filed against David Block, a brother of the members of the firm of Block Bros., alleging that the bankrupts had sold to him another store of goods at Opelousas with intent to defraud their creditors. Writs of arrest and provisional seizure were issued against the bankrupts, and injunctions against Solomon Isaacs and David Block, in accordance with the prayers of the several petitions. Applications were immediately made by the pat ies to set these proceedings aside; and such a showing was presented to the district court that, on the thirty-first of January, the following order was made, towit: 'The rules to set aside the arrest, provisional seizure, and injunction came up, * * * when, after hearing the pleadings, evidence, and arguments, it is ordered by the court that the writs of arrest and provisional seizure be set aside, but that the injunction be maintained, on the complaining creditors giving bond and security to save the parties harmless from the effects of said injunction in such sum as will be fixed by the court upon ascertaining the value of the property, and to that end the parties shall take their evidence before Register Kellogg.' Evidence having been taken under this order, the court, on the seventh of February, 1874, made the following order, to-wit: 'After hearing counsel on both sides, it is ordered by the court that the complaining creditors do give bond and security in the sum of $5,000 in favor of Solomon Isaacs, and another bond in the sum of $1,500 in favor of David Block, to save the parties harmless from the effects of the injunction issued in this cause.' Bonds were accordingly given in pursuance of these orders, and the injunctions were retained. Motions to dissolve them, however, were pressed, and after a large amount of evidence had been taken and laid before the court, they were dissolved on the merits on the eighteenth and twentieth of March, 1874. The bonds referred to were executed for the respective penalties required; but the conditions did not follow the precise terms of the orders. The bond given to Isaacs, with which that given to Block corresponded, was in the following words, to-wit:

'Know all men by these presents, that we, Meyers & Levi, Meyer Weill, Michael Frank, and Samuel Friedlander, are held and firmly bound, jointly and severally, unto Solomon Isaacs in the sum of five thousand dollars, lawful money of the United States of America, to be paid to the said Solomon,' etc.

'Dated nineteenth February, 1874.

'Whereas, the said Meyers & Levi, Meyer Weill, and Michael Frank have presented a petition to the honorable the district court of the United States for the district of Louisiana, praying for a writ of injunction against the said Solomon Isaacs: now, the condition of the above obligation is, that we, the above bounden Meyers & Levi, Meyer Weill, and Michael Frank, and _____, will well and truly pay to the said Solomon Isaacs, the defendant in said injunction, all such damages as he may recover against us in case it should be decided that the said writ of injunction was wrongfully issued.

[Signed] 'MEYER WEILL.

'M. FRANK.

'LEHMAN, GODCHAUX & CO.

'MEYERS & LEVI.

'SAM'L FRIEDLANDER.'

In January, 1875, suits were brought on these bonds by Solomon Isaacs and David Block, respectively, in the Sixth district court for the parish of Orleans, to recover the damages sustained by reason of the injunctions, and on the thirtieth day of March, 1876, judgment was rendered in favor of Isaacs for the sum of $3,250, with interest from judicial demand, and costs; and on the twenty-second of November, 1877, judgment was rendered in favor of Block for $1,500, (the whole penalty of the bond,) with interest and costs. These judgments were severally appealed to the supreme court of Louisiana, and, after much consideration, were affirmed. The cases are now here on writs of error to the latter court; and the same errors are assigned in both cases, namely: First. The supreme court of Louisiana erred in subjecting the plaintiffs in error to the law and jurisprudence of Louisiana, when they were parties to an injunction bond given in equity in and by order of the federal court. Second. The supreme court of Louisiana erred in holding that the bond was regular. Third. The supreme court of Louisiana erred in holding that an action could be maintained on the bond in suit before its condition was broken. Fourth. The supreme court of Louisiana erred in holding that the bond in suit, construed with the order requiring it, could cover and bind the obligors for damages which had been sustained before it was given.

For supporting the first three assignments of error reliance is mainly placed on the case of Bein v. Heath, 12 How. 168. There an injunction had been obtained in the circuit court of the United States for the Eastern district of Louisiana to suspend proceedings of seizure and sale under a mortgage; and, to obtain the injunction, the complainants were required, by order of the court, to give bond, with sureties, to answer all damages which the defendant might sustain in consequence of said injunction being granted, should the same be thereafter dissolved. The bond given was conditioned that the principal and sureties would pay to the defendant in the injunction (the plaintiff in the case of seizure and sale) all such damages as she might recover against them in case it should be decided that the said injunction was unlawfully obtained, being in nearly the same form as the bonds now in controversy. The case proceeded to hearing, and a decree was made, establishing the mortgage and dissolving the injunction, which decree was affirmed on appeal to this court. The mortgage debt was over $11,000, besides interest and costs. The property mortgaged was sold for $7,000. Suit was then brought in the same court on the injunction bond, the plaintiff claiming, not only damages for expense and delay, but 10 per cent. per annum on the amount of the debt. The...