Court Opinion

ID: 3277146
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2016-07-05 16:45:54.404426+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:11:32.824458
License: Public Domain

The firm of Jackson-Hill Cotton Company became indebted to the American Southern Trust Company, and, to secure its debt, executed a deed to the American Southern Trust Company conveying about 8,000 acres of land in Ashley County, Arkansas. The conveyance, although a deed in form, in fact was a mortgage, and signed by the individual members of the firm of Jackson-Hill Cotton Company, and their wives, as follows: Ranson J. Jackson and Ann C. Jackson, his wife; B. O. Jackson and Della McM. Jackson, his wife; Harry E. Hill and Bracey Jackson Hill, his wife.
Bracey Jackson Hill was the sister of B. O. Jackson and Ranson J. Jackson, and was living in Pulaski County until the time of her death. Harry E. Hill was appointed administrator of her estate.
W. O. Davis was appointed receiver of the American Southern Trust Company, and presented the claim to the administrator of the estate of Bracey Jackson Hill, which claim was disallowed by the administrator.
Thereafter, on October 15, 1931, the claim was allowed by the probate court of Pulaski County. Before the *Page 53 
claim was filed in the probate court of Pulaski County, suit had been filed by W. O. Davis, receiver, in Ashley County, Arkansas, to foreclose the mortgage in that county. Said suit is now pending in the Ashley County Chancery Court.
Thereafter a petition on behalf of the children of Bracey Jackson Hill was filed in Pulaski Probate Court, asking that the allowance of said claim be set aside, and that the court remove Hill as administrator, and appoint R. J. Jackson administrator in succession of the estate of Bracey J. Hill, deceased.
The probate court made an order reciting the pendency of the suit in Ashley Chancery Court against the administrator and others to foreclose the mortgage, and to obtain a judgment against the administrator and others upon the notes sued on. The probate court, for that reason, set aside the allowance made on December 23, 1931, and refused to allow or disallow the claim. Appellant then filed in the Pulaski Circuit Court a petition for a writ of mandamus to compel the Pulaski Probate Court to act on the claim.
Ross Lawhon, the judge of the Pulaski Probate Court, did not appear, and an order was issued directing him to pass on the claim, and either allow or disallow it.
Thereafter Ross Lawhon, judge of the probate court, filed a petition and asked that the writ be set aside. The circuit court set aside the writ and refused to issue the writ of mandamus. The case is here on appeal.
The only issue involved is whether appellant can foreclose in one county a mortgage which he holds and at the same time, during the pendency of the foreclosure suit, probate his claim against the estate in another county.
The appellee's first contention is that 1189 of Crawford Moses' Digest prohibits the prosecution of the suit in Pulaski Probate Court, while the foreclosure suit is pending in another county. He relies on the third paragraph of the above section, which states, as a ground of *Page 54 
demurrer, that there is another action pending between the same parties for the same cause.
The suits are not between the same parties, and they are not for the same cause. The suit in the Pulaski Probate Court is against the estate of Bracey Jackson Hill for an allowance against the estate. The suit in Ashley Chancery Court is against several persons, including the administrator of the estate of Bracey Jackson Hill, and is for the foreclosure of a mortgage.
The Pulaski County Probate Court would have no jurisdiction to foreclose a mortgage, and the Ashley Chancery Court would have no jurisdiction to allow a claim against the estate of Bracey Jackson Hill.
It is only in cases where two courts have concurrent jurisdiction of the same cause of action that the pendency of the case in one court bars the right to pursue the same remedy by the same parties in another court. Kastor v. Elliott, 77 Ark. 148, 91 S.W. 8; Simms v. Miller, 151 Ark. 377,236 S.W. 828; Bd. Dir. St. Francis Levee Dist. v. Redditt, 79 Ark. 154, 95 S.W. 482.
It is said that, if the Pulaski County Probate Court allows or disallows the claim, this will bring about a conflict of jurisdiction with the chancery court of Ashley County. It is true that one court might find one amount, and another court a different amount. One court might find there was liability and the other that there was no liability, but these questions are not before us, and, if such a thing should happen, and appeals be taken in both cases to this court, it would then become the duty of this court to decide this question.
But the question now before the court is whether another suit pending in Ashley County was a bar to the right of prosecuting the claim in the probate court of Pulaski County, and, as we have said, it is not between the same parties, and is not the same cause of action, and the pendency of the suit in Ashley County does not prevent the claimant from prosecuting his claim in the probate court of Pulaski County. It is only in cases where the causes of action are inconsistent that the prosecution *Page 55 
of one suit bars the other. Where the two remedies are cumulative and not inconsistent, both suits may be prosecuted at the same time. Sturdivant v. Reese, 86 Ark. 452,111 S.W. 261; Dilley v. Simmons National Bank, 108 Ark. 342,158 S.W. 144; Craig v. Meriwether, 84 Ark. 298,105 S.W. 585.
"Where the law affords several distinct but not inconsistent remedies for the enforcement of a right, the mere election or choice to pursue one of such remedies does not operate as a waiver of the right to pursue the other remedies. In order to operate as a waiver or estoppel, the election must be between coexistent and inconsistent remedies. To determine whether coexistent remedies are inconsistent, the relation of the parties with reference to the right sought to be enforced as asserted by the pleadings should be considered. If more than one remedy exists, but they are not inconsistent, only a full satisfaction of the right asserted will estop the plaintiff from pursuing other consistent remedies. All consistent remedies may in general be pursued concurrently even to final adjudication; but the satisfaction of the claim by one remedy puts an end to the other remedies." American Process Co. v. Florida Pressed Brick Co., 56 Fla. 116,47 So. 942, 16 Ann. Cas. 1054.
"Another class of cases exists where there is but one cause of action but in which different or alternative remedies may be pursued. It is permissible to follow these remedies or reliefs independently, even in some cases to judgment, although but one satisfaction can be had. Thus a creditor whose claim is secured by two written obligations falling due simultaneously has a right to proceed at once thereafter upon either or both of them to enforce payment of the amount due." 9 R.C.L. 958-59.
"The doctrine of the election of remedies, that the pursuit of one remedy will exclude the pursuit of another applies only to those cases in which the party has two or more remedies which are inconsistent with each other, and has no application to a state of facts where the remedies available to him are concurrent and consistent. *Page 56 
Where the law furnishes a party with two or more concurrent and consistent remedies, he may prosecute one or all until satisfaction is had; but a satisfaction of one is a satisfaction of all. He may select and adopt one as better adapted than the others to work out his purpose, but his choice is not compulsory or final." 20 C.J. 6-7.
It is said in a note cited in support of the above text as follows: "If more than one remedy exists, but they are not inconsistent, only a full satisfaction of the right asserted will estop the plaintiff from pursuing other consistent remedies. All consistent remedies may in general be pursued concurrently even to final adjudication; but the satisfaction of the claim by one remedy puts an end to the other remedies." Note 56, 20 C.J. 7.
If the remedies had been the same, and the parties the same in each court in this case, then the jurisdiction of the court which had been first invoked would retain jurisdiction, and no other court would exercise jurisdiction during the pendency of the first suit. In other words, where courts have concurrent jurisdiction, the one that first obtains jurisdiction will determine the case, and no other court with concurrent jurisdiction would be permitted to interfere. But where the remedies are wholly different, as they are in this case, and are consistent, as they are in this case, then they are cumulative, and the plaintiff may pursue as many remedies as he may have.
In a recent case we said: "We find nothing in the law requiring a plaintiff to exhaust his security in the mortgage before resorting to other proceedings. A plaintiff creditor may prosecute all remedies against a debtor with the right, of course, to only one satisfaction of the debt." Vaughan v. Screeton, 181 Ark. 511, 27 S.W.2d 789; Rhodes v. Cannon, 112 Ark. 6, 164 S.W. 752; England v. Spillers, 128 Ark. 33, 193 S.W. 86.
Our attention has been called to the case of McLean v. McLean, 184 Wis. 495, 199 N.W. 459. It may be said in the first place that the authorities on the question here involved are not entirely harmonious. Different States have different statutes governing the question, but in the *Page 57 
case of McLean, referred to, the court said that the owner of the mortgage had the right to pursue one of three remedies, and that statement indicates that that court might hold that they could not all be prosecuted at the same time.
But this question was not before the court in the McLean case. The court itself stated as follows: "The appellants in the court below pleaded the statute of limitations, and the only question involved on this appeal is whether or not the note and mortgage are barred by such statutes." The court was not considering the question before us; it was unimportant. No one connected with the case gave any thought to the proposition here involved, because the only question before the court was the question of the statute of limitations.
The weight of authority seems to be that, where one has cumulative and consistent remedies, he may pursue all or one.
Attention is called to the case of Jamison v. Adler-Goldman Commission Co., 59 Ark. 548, 28 S.W. 35, and the case of Merchants' Nat. Bank of Ft. Smith v. Taylor,181 Ark. 356, 25 S.W.2d 1048. Under these authorities, if any amounts were collected from the securities, it would, of course, have to be applied in reduction of the claim in probate court. So, also, if payments were made on the claim in the probate court, the claim pending in the Ashley Chancery Court would necessarily be reduced by the amount collected in the probate court.
In other words, although a person may pursue one or all his remedies, he can have but one satisfaction.
The judgment of the circuit court is reversed, and the cause remanded with directions to issue the writ.