Syndicate Improvement Company v. Bradley
| Decision Date | 22 December 1897 |
| Parties | SYNDICATE IMPROVEMENT COMPANY ET AL. v. BRADLEY |
| Court | Wyoming Supreme Court |
Rehearing Denied 7 Wyo. 228 at 235.
Commenced in District Court September 10, 1896.
ERROR to the District Court for Laramie County. HON. CHARLES W BRAMEL, Judge of Second District, presiding.
This action was brought by Chester B. Bradley, the defendant in error, against the Syndicate Improvement Company, Charles W Riner, and William R. Schnitger, the plaintiffs in error. Defendant in error, on the 18th day of May, 1895, recovered a judgment against the Syndicate Improvement Company, one of the plaintiffs in error, for the sum of $ 3,741.54, principal and interest, and $ 383.75 costs. On the 19th day of May 1895, an execution and order of sale upon said judgment were issued out of the District Court of Natrona County which was returned unsatisfied with costs amounting to $ 190.25, owing to the defendant, the Syndicate Improvement Company filing an undertaking to stay execution pending proceedings in the Supreme Court upon said judgment. It was filed in the office of the Clerk of the District Court within the county of Natrona and State of Wyoming; the said bond being in the sum of $ 8,500.00, and conditioned that the Syndicate Improvement Company would pay to the said Chester B. Bradley, the condemnation money and costs if the said judgment should be affirmed in whole or in part, or if said proceedings in error be dismissed. The case was thereupon taken to the Supreme Court, and on the 3d day of March, 1896, the judgment of the District Court of Natrona County was affirmed and judgment by the way of penalties was entered by the said Supreme Court against the Syndicate Improvement Company, for the sum of $ 100.00 attorney's fees and one per cent interest upon said judgment during the time execution was stayed, in addition to the rate of interest allowed by law upon the judgment in the District Court. This action was brought upon the supersedeas undertaking, said Riner and Schnitger being the sureties thereon. The answer to the petition was a general denial. The cause was tried to the court without the intervention of a jury. Judgment was rendered in favor of defendant in error, plaintiff below, for $ 5,334.75. Plaintiffs in error filed a motion for new trial on the ground that "the decision of the court in said cause is not sustained by sufficient evidence and is contrary to law," which was overruled; and proceedings in error were instituted.
Judgment affirmed.
Burke & Fowler, for plaintiffs in error.
The judgment was for a sum greatly in excess of the amount due. 1. The rate of interest on a judgment can not even under Section 3130, R. S., exceed eight per cent per annum. 2. It was error to allow the interest awarded by the court to be compounded.
By "condemnation money" mentioned in the undertaking under Rev. Stat., Sec. 3136, is meant the damages which should be awarded against the appellant by the judgment of the court; it does not embrace damages included in the judgment. (Doe v. Daniels, 6 Blackf., 8.) The liability of a surety is not to be extended by implication beyond the terms of his contract. (9 Wheat., 680; 34 P. 51; 17 Wend., 422; 5 Hill, 634; 17 N.W. 758; 12 N.E. 205.) The sureties are not liable for costs on appeal. (101 U.S. 7.)
John W. Lacey, for defendant in error.
Section 3130 authorizes interest by way of penalty for bringing error proceedings without cause. This statute and the statutes fixing the rate of interest generally existed in pari materia until the enactment of the law of 1895 regulating interest. Section 3130 is not in conflict with the law of 1895. The authorities cited respecting the liability of sureties have no application here. Moreover this proceeding in error is joint, and no error not available to the principal is available to the sureties. (N. Platte M., etc., Co. v. Price, 4 Wyo. 293.) Error in the amount of recovery is not covered by the motion for new trial which complains only that the decision is not sustained by sufficient evidence and is contrary to law. If there is an excess on the ground of compounding interest, it is insignificant, and will therefore not authorize a reversal. (53 Conn. 212; 30 id., 26; 49 id., 64; 2 A. K. Marsh, 450; 44 Ill.App. 362; 33 F. 240; 2 Tidd's Pr., 815.)
Burke & Fowler, in reply.
We insist that the judgment is not sustained by sufficient evidence, and not merely that the amount thereof is excessive. The interest which may be granted under Section 3130, R. S., is in the nature of a penalty if at all allowable, and is not continuing interest. (17 O., 605; 19 id., 26; 14 O. St., 349.) When granted as interest, it conflicts with the usury laws. If granted at all, it ought to be in a fixed sum. The judgment of the Supreme Court violated Sec. 1 of Art. 14 of the Constitution of the U. S. (Sedg. Stat. Const., 177; Com'rs v. Carter, 2 Kan. 109; Holden v. James, 11 Mass. 396; Turner v. Althaus, 6 Neb. 71; 26 Mich. 29; 21 Pa. 161; 6 Wall., 71; 4 Ind. 344; 11 Pa. 491.)
On petition for a rehearing the point that the judgment for additional interest violated the 14th Amendment to the Federal Constitution was reargued in the brief and the authorities, supra, again cited.
POTTER, CHIEF JUSTICE. CORN, J., concurs. Knight, J., did not sit in this case, it having been heard and submitted prior to the death of the late Mr. Chief Justice Conaway.
This is an action upon an undertaking given in pursuance of the statute to stay execution, pending proceedings in error, upon a judgment recovered by Chester B. Bradley against the Syndicate Improvement Company in the District Court for Natrona County. That judgment was affirmed by this court.
It having been determined that there was no reasonable cause for the proceeding in error, this court allowed the sum of one hundred dollars as a reasonable fee for counsel for defendant in error in that cause, and ordered that the judgment of the District Court bear additional interest at the rate of one per cent per annum for the time the same was stayed, by authority of Section 3130, Rev. Statutes 1887.
Upon the trial of the present case, the plaintiff offered in evidence the proceedings and judgment of the District Court and the opinions of this court in the original case, and judgment was rendered against the principal and sureties in the undertaking for the sum of $ 5,334.75.
This case comes here on error, and the plaintiffs in error contend that the judgment is erroneous because its amount is greatly in excess of the sum actually due. In support thereof it is contended, First: That the judgment of this court imposing the additional interest was in violation of the Act of February 11, 1895, which fixed the rate of interest upon judgments at eight per cent per annum, except that in case a judgment is founded upon a contract by the terms of which a less rate of interest shall have been agreed upon, the contract rate shall apply to the judgment. (Sess. Laws 1895, p. 55.) Second: That in computing the amount due upon the judgment interest was compounded by determining the sum due on the third day of March, 1896, the date of the final order in this court, and computing interest upon that amount to the date of judgment.
The condition of the undertaking is that, "The Syndicate Improvement Company, plaintiff in error, will pay the condemnation money and costs, if the said judgment so as aforesaid sought to be reversed, be affirmed in whole or in part, or if the said proceedings in error be dismissed." The judgment which is now here for review seems to have been made up as follows: The original judgment, $ 3,741.54; costs $ 383.75; additional costs, $ 190.25; interest at nine per cent from May 18, 1895, to March...
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Syndicate Improvement Company v. Bradley
...COMPANY ET AL. v. BRADLEY Supreme Court of WyomingDecember 22, 1897 7 Wyo. 228 at 235. Original Opinion of December 22, 1897, Reported at: 7 Wyo. 228. Rehearing POTTER, CHIEF JUSTICE. CORN, J., and KNIGHT, J., concur. OPINION ON PETITION FOR REHEARING POTTER, CHIEF JUSTICE. The facts in the......