Yellow Pine Export Co. v. Sutherland-Innes Co.

• Decision Date: 20 December 1904
• Parties: YELLOW PINE EXPORT CO. v. SUTHERLAND-INNES CO.
• Court: Alabama Supreme Court

37 So. 922

141 Ala. 664

YELLOW PINE EXPORT CO. v. SUTHERLAND-INNES CO.

Supreme Court of Alabama

December 20, 1904

Appeal from Chancery Court, Mobile County; Thos. H. Smith Chancellor.

Suit by the Sutherland-Innes Company against the Yellow Pine Export Company for injunction. Decree for complainant, and defendant appeals. Reversed.

The bill in this case was filed by the appellee against the appellant on July 7, 1904. In the bill it was averred that up to and including June 20, 1904, and for a long time prior thereto, the complainant was in possession of a certain boom in a navigable stream; that said boom was used by complainants as a place for storing, floating, and handling logs and timber, and had been so used up to June 20, 1904 under and by virtue of a lease; that upon the expiration of said lease the complainants surrendered possession of said boom, and it was released to the defendants; that, at the time of the expiration of said lease and the surrender thereof, there was left in and under the manager of said boom 400 or 500 pieces of saw or hewn timber, which was the property of the complainants, all of which timber could be easily identified and separated from other timber that might be in said boom; that a few days after the respondent was put in possession of said timber the complainant sent its employés to remove its timber from said boom, when they were prevented therefrom by the agents of the respondent company and threatened with arrest; that thereupon the respondent refused to allow the complainants to remove said timber from said boom. It is then averred in the bill that the complainant could remove the timber from the boom without damage to the property of the defendant, that the refusal of the defendant to allow complainant to remove said property had greatly damaged and embarrassed the complainant, and that such refusal was without legal right or excuse. The prayer of the bill was that an injunction issue, enjoining and restraining the defendant's officers, agents, and employés from molesting, hindering, or obstructing the complainant or its officers or employés in the removal of the timber left by the complainant in said boom. Upon the filing of the bill and the execution of a bond therefor, an execution was issued, enjoining the defendant "from molesting, hindering, or obstructing in any way the complainant, the Sutherland-Innes Company, its officers agents, servants and employees, in the removal of the timber left by the complainant in the boom; that is to say, that certain boom, a place for storing, floating, and handling logs and timber, situated on the north side of Chickasabogue creek in Mobile county, until the further orders of this court." The defendant moved the court to dissolve the injunction because the bill was without equity, and assigned several grounds therefor. The defendant also moved to discharge the injunction upon the same grounds. The defendant also moved the court to modify the injunction so as to allow the property "to remain in statu quo until such means to...