Court Opinion

ID: 9552245
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 19:07:04.343149+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:25:54.547381
License: Public Domain

DUNLAP, District Judge
(dissenting) :
I am unable to concur in the opinion of the court.
Since prior to 1895, the procedure provided for by Revised Statutes, Section 4297 (now Idaho Code § 8-411), as interpreted by this court in 1898, in the case of Raft River Land and Cattle Co. v. Langford, 6 Idaho 30, 51 P. 1027, has been the established rule of procedure followed by the courts and parties litigant in preliminary injunction matters when a hearing on the merits was desired by the party opposing the injunction.
That procedure provides for a full hearing on the merits if the required notice is given. The statute is as follows:
“Upon the hearing of an application for an injunction upon notice to the adverse party, or upon return of an order to show cause why an injunction should not be granted, or upon an application to dissolve or modify an injunction granted without notice, where the injunction was granted or is applied for wholly or in part upon affidavits, the party resisting the application or moving to dissolve the injunction may, by three days’ written notice, require the adverse party to produce at the hearing for cross-examination before the court or judge, the affiants of the affidavits upon which he relies for the injunction, or to resist the application for its dissolution; and any party so requiring his adverse party to produce his witnesses at such hearing must himself produce for cross-examination, the witnesses upon whom he relies upon such hearing; and either party may have the same process to secure the attendance of witnesses at such hearing, as upon trial of issue of fact in the district court; and in such case, where the attendance of witnesses shall have been so required, no affidavit shall be read or considered by the court or judge upon such hearing unless the affiant is so produced for cross-examination: *400provided, that the court or judge may, at the conclusion of the examination of the witnesses produced by the respective parties, for good cause shown, adjourn the hearing to enable either party to secure the attendance of an absent affiant, or may direct his examination to be taken in writing before such officer and at such time and place as the court or judge may designate. The examination of any witness produced before the court or judge must, upon request of either party, be reduced to writing, subscribed by the affiant, certified by the judge and filed in the action, and, with any examination taken in compliance with the order of the court or judge, be made a part of the record upon appeal in the same manner as affidavits are made a part of such record.” I.C. § 8-411.
In the Raft River case cited above, this court construed this statute as follows:
“ * * * It will, we think, be apparent, from an examination of this section of our Statutes, that it is not contemplated therein that any hearing, either upon an order to show cause or an application to dissolve an injunction as in said section provided for, shall be heard otherwise than upon the pleadings in the case and affidavits filed in support thereof, except as in said section provided, where, upon notice by the adverse party, the moving party is required ‘to produce at the hearing, for cross-examination before the court or judge, the affiants of the affidavits upon which he relies for the injunction or to resist the application for its dissolution.’ It is only when the party opposing the motion or required to respond to the order to show cause has by notice required the moving party to produce the affiants of his affidavits, at the hearing for cross-examination, that such opposing party is authorized or required by the statute to produce witnesses upon the hearing.” 6 Idaho at 34, 51 P. at 1029 (Emphasis supplied).
The record in this case reflects that upon due notice the motion for preliminary injunction was heard on July 14, 1964. The notice provided for by I.C. § 8-411 was not given by appellants; no opposing affidavits were filed and appellants’ answer and cross-complaint were not filed until the day of the hearing. As far as the record before the court shows, respondent had no notice whatsoever that the motion for preliminary injunction would even be opposed, or that it would be faced at the hearing with the necessity of meeting or controverting any evidence whatsoever produced by appellants. Respondent had the right to expect that the established statutory procedure honored and accepted by this court for over seventy years would be followed at the hearing and *401the matter determined on the affidavit filed in support of the motion for preliminary-injunction.
In spite of the sorry state of the record made by appellants, they were not deprived of a hearing on the merits for the court did accept their offer of proof. This offer of proof was not made a matter of record and this court has not the slightest idea of the contents thereof. It could have had merit or it could have been utterly ridiculous. Upon some basis, which totally escapes the writer of this opinion, the majority opinion reaches the conclusion that the evidence offered would have supported the denials of the answer and the allegation of the cross-complaint. The record before the court fails to support this conclusion.
It must be assumed, in absence of anything in the record to the contrary, that the trial court in the exercise of its sound discretion considered the offer and found it without merit.
The granting or refusing of injunctive relief rests in the sound discretion of the court and the exercise of such discretion by the trial court in granting or refusing a temporary injunction will not be reversed on appeal unless a clear abuse of discretion is shown. Unity Light & Power Company v. City of Burley, 83 Idaho 285, 361 P.2d 788. No abuse of discretion is apparent from the record.
The majority opinion reaches the conclusion that the procedure established by I.C. § 8-411 is not applicable here because of the adoption of IRCP 65(a) and IRCP 52(a), and suggests that the code section is in conflict with those rules. I can find no conflict. IRCP 65(a) provides only that no preliminary injunction shall be issued without notice to the adverse party, and IRCP 52(a) pertains to the making of finding of fact and conclusion of law. Idaho Code § 8-411 provides for a full hearing on the merits if the required procedure is followed. It was not followed in this case by appellants.
The majority opinion cites the case of Sims v. Greene, 161 F.2d 87, and a number of other federal cases for the proposition that a preliminary injunction should not issue upon the pleadings and affidavits without opportunity to the adverse party to produce oral testimony. I have no quarrel with this proposition, but submit that I.C. § 8-411 provides the opportunity for the presentation of oral evidence if the established procedure is followed by giving due notice to the applicant.
The affidavit filed in support of the motion for preliminary injunction, in the absence of proof to the contrary, is sufficient under the state of the record before this court to support the trial court’s order granting the temporary injunction and the order contains sufficient findings of fact and con*402elusions of law to satisfy the provisions of IRCP 52(a).
The order granting the preliminary injunction should be affirmed.