Court Opinion

ID: 9638903
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 15:57:50.4279+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:10.551419
License: Public Domain

Supplemental Opinion on Denial of Rehearing Steele Hays, Justice. By petition for rehearing, appellant has satisfied us that one of his assignments of error was sufficiently raised in the trial court and should have been answered on its merit in our opinion handed down on September 24, 1984. Appellant contends the trial court should not have awarded Williford a judgment which included $12,500 voluntarily paid by other persons, not parties to the suit, as well as $2,862.26 in interest on that amount. The proof showed that part of the funds used to finance the litigation against Sheriff Marion Thomas was borrowed by James C. Hale, Sr. from the Bank of West Memphis. No written agreement existed between Williford and Hale to the effect that Hale would be reimbursed should Williford ever recover the expenses incurred in the suit. Appellant’s only authority for this argument is a familiar group of cases holding that when one person without mistake of fact or fraud, duress, coercion, or extortion pays money on a demand which is not enforceable against him, the payment is deemed voluntary and cannot be recovered. Northcross v. Miller, 184 Ark. 463, 43 S.W.2d 734 (1931); Turpin v. Antonio, 153 Ark. 377, 240 S.W. 1076 (1922); Ritchie v. Bluff City Lumber Co., 86 Ark. 175, 110 S.W. 591 (1908). There are two answers: first, the appellant lacks standing to raise a defense only arguably available to Williford if he were sued by others to recover contributions to the fund. Williford represented to the Chancellor that he intended to reimburse those who had contributed and whether he would be permitted to rely on the doctrine expressed in those cases if he failed to honor his commitment is, at best, hypothetical. We do not answer academic issues. McCuen v. Harris, 271 Ark. 863, 611 S.W.2d 503 (1981); McDonald v. Bowen, 250 Ark. 1049, 468 S.W.2d 765 (1971). Second, we have said suits of this sort are often difficult and costly and where they result, as this did, in a recovery for the benefit of taxpayers, such undertakings are looked on with favor by the courts. Marlin v. Marsh & Marsh, 189 Ark. 1157, 76 S.W.2d 965 (1934). Petition denied.