Court Opinion

ID: 9686893
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 16:10:53.368002+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:22.808525
License: Public Domain

HEFLIN, Chief Justice
(concurring specially) :
I concur with the holding reached by my colleagues but feel it is necessary to add one final comment, with which all participating justices are in accord, lest a portion of the court’s opinion be misinterpreted.
The latter part of the opinion contains a quote from Yauger v. Taylor, 218 Ala. 235, 118 So. 271 (1928) to the effect that equity will not grant legal relief in the absence of a decree awarding some form of equitable relief. This is mentioned in regard to the appellant-complainant’s claim for money damages, and I do not take issue with this statement of law; however, I think it is unnecessary to the holding and lends itself to misinterpretation.
The affirming opinion of this court in the case under review interprets the lower court’s final decree as finding that there was no nuisance. Thus the appellant-complainant would be entitled to no damages either at law or in equity. Therefore, the quote from Yauger v. Taylor, supra, has no application to this case.
Assuming, on the other hand, that there was a nuisance but that a proper balancing of the equities dictated that it not be abated, then the appellant-complainant would, even in the absence of an injunction-granting decree, have an equitable cause of action for the alleged permanent and constantly recurring injury to his land, as the legal remedies for this type of futuristic injury do not afford adequate or complete relief. McCary v. McLendon, 195 Ala. 497, 70 So. 715 (1915); City of Clanton v. Johnson, 245 Ala. 470, 17 So.2d 669 (1944). Of course, the latter situation, i. e., unabateable nuisance, is not applicable since the lower court’s decree has been interpreted as finding that there was no nuisance and, therefore, the equitable remedy for futuristic money damages was not available to the appellant-complainant. However, the rule reaffirmed in the court’s opinion, i. e., equity will not grant legal relief in the absence of a decree awarding some form of equitable relief, should not be understood as precluding an action in equity for futuristic damages under the conditions mentioned above, even in the absence of a decree awarding an injunction, as such damages themselves constitute equitable relief.