Opinion ID: 1430903
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Appellants specify two errors:

Text: Their first contention is that mandamus is not the proper remedy, because respondents have a plain, speedy, and adequate remedy at law. It is apparent from NRS 403.450 that upon compliance by a city with the provisions thereof it becomes the duty of the county commissioners to make the apportionment of funds as in said statute provided, and upon its failure to do so an action at law would lie. [1] Oregon City v. Clackamas County, 118 Or. 546, 247 P. 772. We held in State ex rel. Brown v. Nevada Industrial Commission, 40 Nev. 220, 161 P. 516, that mandamus is not the proper remedy if there is a plain, speedy, and adequate remedy at law, and NRS 34.170 so provides. Respondents contend, however, that even though a legal remedy here exists, it is not as plain, speedy, and adequate a remedy as is provided by mandamus, and that an action for money damages would not be equally as convenient, complete, beneficial, and effective as a writ of mandamus. To support this view they refer to the decision of the trial court wherein the following appears: While it is possibly true that an action at law would lie for the amount claimed by the two Cities, it is difficult for me to comprehend that such a procedure comes under the category of `plain, speedy and adequate' in that a complaint, summons, trial, judgment, execution and sale would have to be brought before any relief could be obtained under respondents' contention, something which is not `equally convenient, beneficial and effectual.' Inasmuch as an action at law would lie to compel the performance of the duty imposed by the statute a plain remedy other than mandamus is available to respondents. We need consider, therefore, only whether said remedy is also speedy and adequate. A judgment in an action at law that the respondents apportion the funds could as easily be obtained as a judgment of mandate ordering them to partition the funds. In either case the procedure for relief would require a complaint or petition, summons or notice, trial or hearing, and judgment or order. However, the fact that mandamus would give an easier or more expeditious remedy is not the criterion. Mandamus lies only where there is no other remedy, both legal and specific. Steves v. Robie, 139 Me. 359, 31 A.2d 797. A remedy does not fail to be speedy and adequate, because, by pursuing it through the ordinary course of law, more time probably would be consumed than in a mandamus proceeding. [2] Hubbard v. Justice's Court, 5 Cal. App. 90, 89 P. 865. We therefore conclude that the legal remedy was both speedy and adequate, and we disapprove of the reasoning of the lower court as so expressed in its decision. If that view were accepted, mandamus could issue in any case where the cause of action arises out of a mandatory statute, and an action at law is available. During oral argument, counsel for respondents suggested that an action at law would not be adequate because it could not be enforced by a writ of execution against a county fund. Whether this be true or not, it is hardly to be supposed that an execution would be necessary in the event a judgment at law were obtained against the county in this type of case any more than a contempt proceeding would be required in the event a peremptory writ of mandamus were issued. In answer to this suggestion, however, it is necessary to say only that our concern is with the existence of a remedy and not whether it will be unproductive in this particular case, Hughes v. Newcastle Mutual Insurance Co., 13 U.C.Q.B. (Ont.) 153, or inconvenient, Gulf Research & Development Co. v. Harrison, 9 Cir., 185 F.2d 457, or ineffectual, United States ex rel. Crawford v. Addison, 22 How. 174, 63 U.S. 174, 16 L.Ed. 304. In Stewart v. Manget, 132 Fla. 498, 181 So. 370, in affirming an order dismissing a bill in equity on the ground that the plaintiff had an adequate remedy at law, the Florida Supreme Court cited with approval the following language from Tampa & G.C.R. Co. v. Mulhern, 73 Fla. 146, 74 So. 297, 299: The inadequacy of a remedy at law to produce money is not the test of the applicability of the rule. All remedies, whether at law or in equity, frequently fail to do that; and to make that the test of equity jurisdiction would be substituting the result of a proceeding for the proceeding which is invoked to produce the result. The true test is, could a judgment be obtained in a proceeding at law, and not, would the judgment procure pecuniary compensation. This statement is true with respect not only to suits in equity, but also to mandamus proceedings. If a judgment based on a claim for money should be obtained against the county, and the county commissioners then should refuse to pay such final judgment, mandamus then would be an appropriate remedy. State ex rel. Brown v. Nevada Industrial Commission, supra. But as heretofore stated we are concerned only with the existence of a remedy at law and not with the enforcement thereof after judgment. Disposition of the appeal by sustaining appellants' first claim of error eliminates consideration of other matters. Reversed. BADT, C.J., and PIKE, J., concur.