Opinion

Ex Parte Finley

  • 246 Ala. 218
  • 20 So. 2d 98
  • 1944 Ala. LEXIS 462
Court
Supreme Court of Alabama
Filed
Dec 14, 1944
Status
Published
Author
Brown
On the bench
Simpson, Brown
Cited by
5 cases
Authority
More cited than 43.8%

The opinion

BROWN, Justice

(dissenting).

If, as alleged in the bill, the City of Tarrant City acting through its city clerk through fraud, accident or mistake, without fault of the property-owner, failed to send up the appeals to the circuit court in 1930, when they were filed, the adverse party appealing in that case was denied due process of law, and the city should be enjoined from enforcing said ordinances from which the appeal is taken. This was the effect of the holding in Jasper Land Co. v. City of Jasper, 220 Ala. 639 , 127 So. 210 ; City of Bessemer v. Ratliff, 240 Ala. 406 , 199 So. 838 ; Rudulph v. City of Homewood et al., 245 Ala. 648 , 18 So.2d 563 , and other cases.

Courts of equity in Alabama do not grant new trials nor do they supervise courts of law in the administration of justice. Where the jurisdiction of a court of equity is properly invoked, it does not presume to act on the law court itself, but only on the party, and makes its decrees effective by examining the case on the merits and settling the entire controversy according to equity and justice. Norwood v. Louisville & N. R. Co, 149 Ala. 151 , 42 So. 683 .

•It is a familiar principle, well settled in Alabama, that when a court of equity takes jurisdiction for one purpose, it will settle the whole controversy. If the complainants are entitled to relief at all they are entitled to have that relief granted by the circuit court in equity. It is on this ground I differ with my brethren and dissent from the holding in the foregoing opinion. Evans v. Wilhite, 176 Ala. 287 , 58 So. 262 .

This is a copy of a public record, reproduced as it was published. It is not legal advice, and it may not be the version a court would rely on. Check the official source before you cite it.

A word about cookies

We need a few to keep you signed in and the library working. The rest help us see which pages people use and where they get stuck. They stay off unless you say yes.