Opinion ID: 1661032
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: on motion of appellee to have judgment amended so as to remand cause to lower court for assessment of damages.

Text: McGEHEE, C.J. In this cause there was filed on January 22, 1963, a petition to have the judgment which was entered on December 10, 1962, amended so as to remand the cause to the Chancery Court of Hinds County for the assessment of damages. We shall treat the same as a motion to correct judgment, the time having long since passed for the filing of a suggestion of error, and the petition being more in the nature of a motion to correct judgment. No motion was made in the trial court for the assessment of damages when the motion to dissolve the temporary injunction on demurrer was sustained. Under Section 462 of Griffith's Mississippi Chancery Practice, 2d Ed., under the caption Suggestion of Damages Required in Writing in Cases Not Covered by the Statutory Damages, it is provided    that upon dissolution of an injunction the damages may be ascertained by the court or chancellor, and that thereupon the same may be assessed and decreed to the party entitled thereto,   . In order however that the party entitled thereto may have his said damages ascertained and decreed by the Chancellor or the chancery court, he shall suggest in writing, on the hearing of the motion  to dissolve the injunction, the nature and amount of the damages; and when so done the court or chancellor shall hear evidence, if necessary, either by witnesses examined before him in vacation or in term time,   . No evidence was offered by the appellee as to any amount of damages that he had sustained or to which he was entitled upon the dissolution of the injunction on demurrer and the final dismissal of the case, when the appellant declined to plead further. Under Section 463, Griffith's Mississippi Chancery Practice, 2d Ed., it is provided under the caption Damages May Be Recovered in a Separate Action, that The written suggestion above mentioned is an essential to the allowance of damages by the chancellor. It is designed to take the place of, or serve informally as, a pleading with respect to the damages demanded;   . We are therefore of the opinion that the motion to have the judgment heretofore entered in this cause amended so as to remand the case to the chancery court for the assessment of damages should be and the same is hereby overruled without prejudice. Motion overruled. Kyle, Ethridge, Gillespie, and McElroy, JJ., concur.