Case ID: us_43/html/0383-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "\n      Mr. Justice STORY", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Jane Dade, Complainant, v. Thomas Irwin, Jun., executor of Thomas Irwin, deceased, and William L. Hodgson, Defendants.
    A court of equity will not interfere; where the complainant has a proper remedy at law, or where the complainant claims a set-off of a-debf arising under a distinct transaction, unless there is sorne peculiar equity Calling for relief.
    Nor will it-interfere where the set-oif claimed- is old and stale, with regard to which the complainant has observed a long silence, and where the correctness of the set-óíf is a matter of grave doubt.
    This was an appeal from the Circuit Court of the United States for the District of Columbia, in and for the county of Alexandria, sitting as a court of equity.
    The case was this.
    In the years 1824 and 1828 Jane Dade -executed two deeds of trust to one William Herbert, for the purpose of securing a debt which she owed to Thomas Irwin, the deceased.
    In 1830, Thomas Irwin, junior, the executor of Thomas Irwin, (who had died in the mean time,) filed a bill against Jane Dade for the sale of the property. Herbert, the trustee, was alleged to be á iunatic, and the bill therefore prayed that a commissioner might be appointed to make the sale.
    Jane Dade in her answer admitted the justice of the claim as stated in the bill. A decree was entered in conformity with the -bill, and William L. Hodgson appointed commissioner to carry the same into effect.
    On the 21st of November, T834, Jane Dade filed another bill on the equity side of the court, stating that the sale was to take place in a few days, and praying that it might be sfispended. She alleged that she was entitled to a-'credit under the following circumstances: that in 1817 she had loaned to one James Irwin $680; that in 1821, he executed his promissory'note to her for $826 63, which was the amount of the above sum with interest; that, to secure the payment of the note, he assigned a debt due to him' from Henderson and Company, which debt was guarantied by Thomas Irwin, who had become liable-for the same; and that the- amount of this debt, with interest, should be deducted from the- sum for which Thomas Irwin’s executor was about to sell her property. The bill further alleged that Thomas Irwin, the deceased, had become personally liable from having sold some cordage to Henderson and Company, Contrary to his instructions. The assignment of the debt from James Irwin to Jane Dade, (through her agent, John Adam,) and the admission of a personal liability by Thomas Irwin, were- alleged to be in the following terms:—
    I do hereby assign to John Adam, the debt due me by Alexander Henderson for cordage sold him by Thomas Irwin, as my agent, for which debt said Irwin is himself liable, having received said Henderson’s note without my consent. This assignment is made to secure to Jane Dade the payment of six hundred and-eighty dollars, with interest thereon from the 16th of October, one thousand eight hundred and seventeen, money borrowed from her by said Adam for my use, for which I have given him my note, payable in eighteen months, with interest.
    Given undér my hand and seal, this 20th day of May, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-one.
    James Irwin. [Seal.]
    (Endorsed) John Adam.
    Test: Lewis Cole.
    - Endorsed. If the within debt cannot be recovered from Alexander Henderson, I am liable for the same: provided full time be allowed for the prosecution of the suit. . Thomas Irwin. .
    The bill further alleged that Ml time had been allowed for the prosecution of the suit against Henderson, and that there was no prospect of any thing being, recovered.
    Upon filing this bill, an injunction was granted to stay the sale.
    In February, 1835, Thomas Irwin, Jun., the executor, filed his answer, denying all knowledge of the note said to have been given by James Irwin, and denying the assignment above recited. The answer admitted that Thomas Irwin hád sold some cordage to Henderson and Company, for which he had taken their note; that the note had been put in suit, judgment rendered upon it, and execution ■issued - that Henderson was discharged under the insolvent act; that the recovery .of the money due on the said note being considered as desperate, his testator had charged the amount to his principals, James Irwin and Company. The answer denied altogether the signature of Thomas Irwin, guarantying the debt; and alleged sundry other .matters to show the absence of equity in the claim of the complainant.
    In November, 1835, the court refused to dissolve the.injunction, .and • suggested .that an issue should be made up, to be tried at the bar of the court sitting as a. court of law, to try the question of the genuineness of the signature of Thomas Irwin..
    This was done, but the jury were not able to agree, and-were discharged.
    Numerous depositions were then taken arid filed, and the case came on to be heard, when the court decreed that .the injunction should be dissolved and the bill dismissed with costs.
    The complainant, Jane Dade, prayed an appeal to this court.
    
      Neale (in a printed argument) and Brent, for the appellant.
    
      Jones, for the defendant in error.
    
      Neale, for the appellant:
    This cause which comes up by appeal 'from the. Circuit Court of Alexandria county, was upon the final hearing in the court aforesaid, dismissed by a majority of the Court, for the following reasons:
    1. Because, in the- opinion of a majority of the' court, the court had not jurisdiction, of the case sitting as a Court of Chancery.
    2. Because, there was no, consideration from which the defendant’s testator could be made liable, either on • account of the assumpsit in writing endorsed on exhibit B, or for blending his principal’s goods with his o.wn — taking a note therefor, and sueing and obtaining a judgment thereon in his own name .for the two amounts so blended, as the record proves.
    3. Because, the complainant [now appellant] forbore to press this claim sooner, by way of set-off to the claim of the defendant’s testator. For these reasons a majority of the court dismissed the bill at the complainant’s cost. - - Dissentient — his honour the chief jupíge.
    These objections, coming as they do from the very,fountain of justice, are justly entitled to high respect and 'grave consideration. But however high and'pure the source from whence they proceed, still it is an' open’ question whether or not they are sustained by the facts of the case — the principles of equity jurisdiction, and the legal liabilities of an agent' to his principal. According to the regular order of pleading, the first inquiry to be instituted is as to the jurisdiction of the court, and upon that point we cite and rely upon the following authorities and accompanying remarks, to wit:
    Johns. Digest, 102; 1 Wash. Rep. 145; Barbour and Harrington’s Digest, 2, 4, 6, 11, 13, 15, 31, 46; 5 Term Rep. 603; 4 Bing. 459; 1P. Wms. 325, 326; 2 P. Wms. 128; 4 P. Wms. 611; 5 Peters, 278 ; 2 Robinson’s Practice, 1, 4; Tucker’s Commentary, b. 3, p. 404; 1 Story’s Equity, 82, and 442-446, sects. 462, 463, 464. In the case of Grandin and Leroy, 2 Paige, 509, it is said, * that' after a defendant has answered a bill in chancery, and submitted himself to the jurisdiction of the court without objection, it is too late to insist that complainant has a perfect remedy at law ; unless the court is wholly incompetent, [as a Court of Chancery,] to grant the relief sought by the bill.”
    Again it is said, “ that whenever the remedy at law is doubtful' or difficult, a Court of Chancery has jurisdiction.” American Insurance Company v. Fisk, 1 Paige, 90; Teague and Russell, 2 Stew. Rep. 420.
    In the case of Ward v. Arredando, Hopkins, 203, the court say, “ the principle is that the jurisdiction may be upheld whenever the parties, Or the subject, or such portion of the subject as is within the jurisdiction, are such that an effectual decree can be made and enforced so as to do justice.”
    [Mr. Neale then entered at great length upon the consideration of the other two points. His argument is omitted, because the decision of the court was placed upon other grounds.]
    Jones, for the defendant in error:
    This base might appear, at the first blush, somewhat extraordinaiy, as being a bill of injunction and an original bill to stay the regular execution of a decree in equity, and to obtain relief against it four years after it had been obtained by the now defendant, Irwin, against the complainant, Jane Dade, with her full and unqualified consent for the sale of real property to pay a debt which she had collaterally secured by a conveyance of the same property in trust, for the specific purpose of being'sold to raise the money for the payment of such debt, if not paid in a given time. It may not, perhaps, seem less extraordinary that, as an original bill it seeks not to set aside the decree for fraud, and that it is not,- in any sense'or shape, or in any aspect whatever, a bill of review; that no error either of law or fact on the face of;the decree, or in any part of the procedure', nor any new matter discovered since the decree, is at all within the scope or objéct of the bill,: but on the contrary, it is admitted that the debt remains precisely as when the decree was obtained, except a small payment since on account of the interest, and about which there is not, nor ever was, the slightest dispute or difference between the parties; and that the'décree stands wholly unexceptionable in itself, and in every part of the procedure, precedent and subsequent. The whole scope and object of the bill is to get the benefit of a pretended set-off, not discovered since thé decree, but just' as well known to the complainant before the decree, and in fact for many years before the commencement of the suit in which the decree wqs rendered, as at the present time. The pretended set-off consisted of a stale demand of more than thirty years standing, wholly unconnected with any transaction involved in that suit: The complainant had, no original interest or concern in it. The only interest claimed by her in it was from a pretended assignment of it by a third person made seventeen years after the demand, had accrued, more than nine years before the decree, and more than thirteen years before it was for the very -first time brought out and asserted in this bill of injunction. The demand itself consisted in a liability pretended to haye been incurred so long ago as 1804, by the.now defendant’s testator, Thomas Irwin, for misconduct as agent of' one James Irwin, (from whom complainant derives her claim as assignee of tRe cause of action,) in haying unduly indulged a debtor to whom he sold goods,intrusted with him by James Irwin to sell on.eommission; and for which misconduct, if satisfactorily made out, James Irwin might have recovered damages in a special action on the case: a cause of action, therefore, purely and strictly legal in, its nature. The only misconduct imputed to-the agent is that of having taken a negotiable note, at 60 days, .of the mercantile firm to whom he had sold the. goods. Complainant pretends-that seventeen' years after this transaction, when the assignment, was made, Thomas Irwin endorsed on the assignment a conditional acknowledgment of his liability, if the debt cannot be recovered of the principal debtor, provided a reasonable time be allowed for the prosecution of the suit.
    Now, supposing the complete establishment of this set-off in every point of law and fact; setting aside all .consideration of the extraordinary length of timé ifeihad been kept back in silence and inaction; and waiving all objection to equity jurisdiction of a demand so exclusively legal; and in fact.sirktissimi juris, in its nature; the appellee might be content to rely solely upon the well-known principles and rules of equity law and practice, which establish- — first, 'that a' final decree enrolled (or what, with'us, is equivalent to enrolment in England, after the term at which the decree.was rendered has passed over,) if cannot be set aside, nor can any relief whatever be obtained against it, by any sort of original bill, unless-fraud, in the decree be distinctly and circumstantially' charged. Secondly, that even ih the case of a bill of review, either demonstrative error in matter of law must be shown on the face of the decree, -Or the fresh discovery of new matter since the decree; the materiality of which, and the positive inability of the complainant to have come at a previous knowledge of it by using reasonable and active diligence, must all be clearly shown by affidavit Thirdly, that after a case for a bill of review has beén thus made out, it cannot be filed without the special leáye of the court; one of the ordinary and standing.conditions of which leave is, that the decree shall first.be performed.- So’ utterly foreign to .all received notions of equity law or practice is a bill of injunction to stay the. execution of a decree, and so utterly inadmissible is any sort of relief by means of one decree in equity against another decree in equity, but for one or other of the special causes, and in one or other of the-special modes of procedure aforesaid.
    Where there is newly discovered evidence it must be shown to be material and relevant, and. to have been out of the power of the party to have: produced before. Mitford on Pleading, 4 ed. pp. 84) 85; 16 Vesey, 354; 2 Ball and Beatty, 462; Ambler, 295; 5 Russell, 195, where the cases are all examined.
    No bill of: review can be filed until the decree is performed.
    . In this case the ground of the bill is deserted. The court' had no right to go back to an original claim in equity; and the claim is too stale and doubtful in its nature to. be admitted. 1 Howard, 108.
    [Mr. Jones was proceeding in his argument, when the court ex-presséd a desire to hear the counsel oh the other side.] '
    
      Brent, in reply and conclusion.
    This is not merely a bill for an injunction, but also for a discovery as to the time of the origin of the set-off) The suit against Hendersbn was prosecuted until 1835) and the complainant did not think she had a right to ále an original bill until the suit was decided.
   Mr. Justice STORY

delivered the opinion of the court.

This is an appeal from the Circuit Court of the District of Columbia, sitting in Alexandria.

In the year 1824, the appellant, Jane Dade, became indebted to Thomas Irwin, the testator, and executed two deeds of trust for the security of the debt. At the November term of the Circuit Court of Alexandria county, 1830, Irwin, the executor, filed his bill to obtain' a decree of the sale of the estate so cónveyed'in' trust' and a decree was made without objection for the sale, the appellant admitting the justice of the claim; and the'original trustee having become insane, William L. Hodgson was appointed trustee’to make the sale. After sundry delays, the trustee advertised the estate for salé on the 28th of November, 1834; and on the day preceding the intended sale the present bill was filed by the appellant for an injunction against the sale, ' The bill made no objection to the original debt"or decree, but simply set up a claim, by Way of set-off or discount, of a totally’ distinct nature, and unconnected with the original debt, as due by the testator, to her, and for which she alleged in her bill that she ought to receive a credit, to which in equity and strict justice she was-entitled. The claim thus-set up had its-origin in this manner. In May, 1821, James Irwin gave his note for’ $826 63 to John Adam or order, for Mrs. Dade, for money borrowed of her, which note was endorsed by Adam, and on the-same d'ay James Irwin, as collateral security therefor, assigned-to Adam a debt due to him by AIexánder Henderson for cordage sold him by Thomas Irwin'(the testator) as his agent, and for which tlie assignment alleged Thomas Irwin washable, having received Henderson’s note without the consent of James-Irwin. Upon the back of this assignment there now purports to be the following endorsement,' “ If the within debt cannot be recovered' from Alexander Henderson, I am liable for tire same, provided full time be allowed for the prosecution of the suit.” The supposed note-referred to in the assignment was_ dated-in January, 1804, and was for the payment of $901 -83 to the order of Thomas Irwinj and was signed by Alexander Henderson and Co. . This note the bill alleged to include the debt due to James Irwin. Judgment was obtained upon this note in 1805. Afterwards HendersOu, in 1806, became insolvent, and in 1816 a bill in equity was filed for the satisfaction of the judgment out of supposed effects in the hands of certain; garnishees, which suit was not finally disposed of until October, 1835, and Wa3 then.abated by Hendérson’s death.

The answer to the present bill by Thomas- Irwin, the executor, denied the' whole equity thereof. It denied that- James Irwin ever executed the supposed assignment. But he admitted the origin of the. debt due by Henderson and Co.; and that the note taken by the testator-included it ;• but that Henderson having become insolvent he was not liable for that amount, and charged it in his accounts against James Irwin and Co. He also denied the-supposed endorsement oh the assignment to. be genuine, but alleged the same to be a sheer fabrication.

■The injunction prayed for by the bill was granted, -and afterwards the cohrt directed an issue to be tried, by a jury to ascertain whether the testator’s signature to the endorsement was genuine or not. That issue was tried by. a jury, who were unable to agree upon a verdict. The order for an issue was then-rescinded, and .the cause came on for a final hearing in 1839, when the bill was dismissed with costs. There is a great deal of evidence' on both sides as to the genuineness of the signature of the -testator, and also as to the appearance of the ink'of the endorsement being that -of recent’writing. It is also remarkable that in the long interval bétween thé time when the deed of trust was- given in 1824, and -the time when the sale was advertised and the - bill filed, no demand was ever suggested, by or on behalf of Mrs. Dade for the present supposed debt due her as a set-off or otherwise. On the contrary, although repeated and earnest .applications were made for delay of the sale, from the time of the decree in, 1830 until the advertisement in 1834, and some correspondence took-place on -the subject, no allusion whatsoever was made to any such supposed claim or set-off'; but an entire silenee existed on the subject. It is also somewhat singular, that when the bill upon the trust deed was.filed and the decree therein obtained, no suggestion was made by Mrs. Dade in-answer thereto of this supposed claim, not any postponement of the .decree of sale asked upon this account."

- Now, upon this posture of the case, several objections arise as to the maintenance, of the suit... In the first place, the present bill is of an entirely- novel character, Jt is .not- a. bill of’review, or in-the nature of a .bill pf review, founded upon any mistake of facts, or the discovery of any new evidence. It admits in the most unambiguous terms that the decree was right. - Then, it-'sets up merely a cross-claim or set-off of a debt arising under wholly independent and unconnected transactions.- Now it is clear that courts of equity do not act upon the subject of- set-off in respect to distinct and uriconconnected debts, unless some other peculiar equity has intervened, calling for relief; Us, for example, in cases where there has been a mutual credit given by each upon the footing of the debt of the other, so that a just presumption arises that the one is understood by the parties to go in liquidation or set-off of the other. 'In the next place, the remedy for Mrs. Dade, if any such debt as she has alleged exists, is at law against the executor; aqd there is no suggestion that the estate of the testator is insolvent, and that his assets cannot be reached at law. So that the bill steers aside of the assertion.of any equity upon the foundation of which it can rest for its support.

In the next place, the nature and character of the claim itself, now for the first time made, long after the decease of both the Irwins, and thirteen years at least..after its supposed origin. . To.put the case in the least unfavourable light, it is A matter of grave doubt whether the endorsement of the testator’s name on .the assignment is genuine or not. That very doubt would be sufficient to justify this court in affirming the decree of the court below, and leaving Mrs. Dade to her remedy at law, if any she have. But connecting this with such a protracted silence for thirteen years, without presenting or makiñg any application for the recognition or allowance of the claim.to the testator or his executor,.it is impossible not to feel that the merits of the claim at such a distance of time can scarcely be made out in favour of the appellant. It is stale, arid clouded with presumptions unfavourable ti> its original foundation, or present validity. Besides, in cases of this sort, in the examination and weighing of- matters of fact, a. court of equity performs the like functions -as a jury; and we should not incline, as an appellate court, to review the decision to which the court below arrived, unless under circumstances of a peculiar and urgent nature.

The decree of the Circuit Court is, therefore, affirmed with costs.

ORDER.

This cause came on to be heard on the transcript of. the record from the Circuit Court of the United States for the District of Columbia, holden in. and for the county of Alexandria, and was argued by counsel. On consideration whereof, It is now here ordered am decreed by this court, that the decree of the said Cirouit Court in this cause be, and the same is hereby affirmed with costs. 
      
       See 2 Story Eq. Jurisp. §§ 1435, 1436.