Majority
Headnote
An action commenced in the superior court of New-York by individual corporators of that .city against the mayor, aldermen and commonalty, asking for an injunction restraining the defendants from granting the right to construct a certain railroad in the city, is within the jurisdiction of that court both as to parties and subject matter;, and that court has also jurisdiction to grant the injunction sought.delivered the opinion of the court.
The first question to he considered is, did the injunction impose any obligation upon anybody ? The answer must depend upon the solution of the further question,' whether the superior court had jurisdiction 'of the action in which lit was ordered to be issued; because the principle is of uni- ' versal force, that the order or judgment of a court having jurisdiction is to be obeyed, no matter how clearly it may be erroneous. The method of correcting error is by appeal, and not by disobedience. A party proceeded against for disobedience to an order or judgment, is never allowed to allege as a defence for his misconduct that the court erred in its judgment. He must go further, and make out that in point of law, there was no order, and no disobedience, ^By showing that the court had no right to judge between the iparties upon the subject. The point has been held over and over again in reference to the very case of disobedience to injunctions (Deklyn v. Davis, Hopk., 135; Sullivan v. Judah, 4 Paige, 444; Russell v. East Anglian Railway Co., 1 Eng. L. & E. R., 101, 106; Glascott v. Lang, 3 Mylne & Craig, 452), and is well stated in general terms in Wilcox v. Jackson (13 Peters, 511). “Where a court has jurisdiction it has a right to decide every question which occcurs in the cause, and whether its decision be correct or otherwise, its judgment, until reversed, is regarded as binding in every other court. But if it acts without authority, its judgments and orders are regarded as nullities; they are not voidable but simply void.”
To enable us .to proceed to say whether the superior court had jurisdiction, and whether, consequently, its injunction in Davis et al. v. The Mayor, &c., of New-York was void or not, it will be convenient to recur to some almost elementary notions upon the subject. In The State of Rhode Island v. The State of Massachusetts (12 Peters, 718), Mr. Justice Baldwin, delivering the opinion of the majority' of the supreme court of the United States, says: “Jurisdiction is
Now it is not, nor can it be denied that Davis and Palmer had a right to sue in the superior court, nor that the mayor, aldermen and commonalty of the city of New-York might be sued in that court; and it1 is equally clear that Davis and Palmer did, by summons and complaint, institute a suit against them there. So far, therefore, as the parties were concerned, there would seem to be no difficulty in respect to sustaining the jurisdiction.
Then, how is it as to subject matter? The jurisdiction of the superior court depends upon § 33 of the Code of Procedure. This declares, so far as it can possibly bear upon this case, that it shall extend to the following actions, viz: 1. To those specified in §§ 123 and 124, when the cause of action shall have arisen, or the subject of the action shall be situated within the.city of New-York; 2. To all other
How the cases show abundantly that courts of equity possessed jurisdiction in respect to public nuisances, and exercised it by restraining them in certain cases; in others, by refusing to interfere. {Attorney-General v. Johnson, 2 Wils. Ch. R., 87; Spencer v. London and Birmingham Railway, 8 Sim., 193; 2 Story’s Eq., §§ 920-938, and cases there cited.) The subject itself was within their jurisdiction. What judicial action should be had upon that subject was matter of equity, determinable according to the circumstances which each case presented. Whether relief was granted or denied, the decision was judicial, and grounded upon a jurisdiction in the court to act upon the subject matter.
Jurisdiction does not relate to the right of the parties, as between each other, but to the power of the court. The question of its existence is an abstract inquiry, not involving the existence of an equity to be enforced, nor the right of the plaintiff to avail himself of it if it exists. It precedes these questions, and a decision upholding the jurisdiction of the court is entirely consistent with a denial of any equity, either in the plaintiff or in any one else. The case we are considering illustrates the distinction I am endeavoring to point out, as well as any supposed case would. It presents these questions: Have the plaintiffs shown a right to the relief which they seek ? and has the court authority to determine whether or not they have shown such a right ? A wrong
The terms of the injunction, as we have already seen, forbid the granting to certain persons named in the resolution, a copy of which was annexed to the complaint, or their associates, or any other person or persons whomsoever, the right, liberty or privilege of laying a railway "track in Broadway,, or -in any manner authorizing them so to do.
The complaint alleges that the establishment of this railway in Broadway would be a nuisance. The injunction, therefore, upon its face is only such as we have "already concluded the court had jurisdiction to order.
The act which is complained of as a violation of the injunction, is the adoption by the common council of the resolution referred to; and the participation of the defendant Sturtevant in that act, by, voting in favor of the resolution as a member of the board of aldermen, is relied upon as rendering him liable to punishment therefor.
“ Resolved, That Jacob Sharp, &c., have the authority and consent of the common council to lay a double track for a railway in Broadway,” &c.; “ the said grant of permission and authority being upon and with the following conditions and stipulations.”
Then follow regulations arranged under fifteen heads, providing for the mode of building and employing the road, the rates of fare and the compensation to the city, the organization of the grantees into a company, and in the last place providing as follows: “ The associates whose names are set forth in this resolution shall, by writing filed with the clerk of the common council, signify their acceptance thereof, and agree to conform thereto,” &c. It was contended upon this last provision, that until acceptance signified by the associates the resolution did not become an effectual grant, and therefore was no violation of the command of the
Another question has been raised by the appellant, to the consideration of which the question just discussed naturally leads us, and which, although of the same nature as the objection to the jurisdiction of the court first considered, could not so conveniently be examined, until we» had in the first place ascertained what was the actual import of the terms employed in the injunction, and whether they were such as to forbid the defendant, as a member of the board of aldermen, to vote for the resolution or grant in question.
A satisfactory answer to this position is, that the act in question in this case was not in any just sense an act » even of municipal legislation. It is true that it took the form of a resolution, but in substance it was a grant upon condition; and even if immunity belongs to municipal, legislation, it cannot be that by giving to an act not legislative the form of an ordinance or resolution, the jurisdiction of the courts caii be defeated. Should it even be conceded that the resolution in question was partly legislative in its character, another part was most clearly a matter of agreement or grant. The latter, it was within the jurisdiction of the court to prohibit; so far its prohibition would be operative. If the common council were still desirous -of exercising their legislative functions upon the subject, it , behooved them to see to it that they' made a complete separation of the legislative part of the resolution from the residue. Making a grant is in its own nature not a legislative act. It is such an act as it has always been in the power of any court, possessing equity jurisdiction, to prohibit by inj unction. A corporation, municipal or private,
Again, whatever may be determined as to the proper character of this act, whether it is to be deemed legislative or not, when its character shall come directly in question,' it is, I apprehend, plain that the question of its true legal ' character is judicial; one which must be disposed of by the adjudication of courts, and can be dealt with in no other way. The court, therefore, which is called upon to determine this question, is called upon to perform a legitimate judicial function. It has authority to perform it, and is exercising jurisdiction when it makes its decision. It follows, that it has power to arrest the consummation of the act until it determines the question; and its order, though it may be erroneous, cannot be regarded as void.
When an objection to the jurisdiction is pointed at the power of a particular tribunal to entertain and pass upon a question, it may be that its incidental or direct determination upon the question of its own power, is always capable of being assailed collaterally. So far as this rule extends, it proceeds partly upon the ground that no other rule will suffice to restrain tribunals of limited jurisdiction within-their proper bounds. But when the question relates not to the competency of the particular tribunal, but to the scope of judicial power, a different mle prevails. From necessity, the question must be determined judicially. Fo other power is competent to deal with it. Fo court is any more competent than any other court of general jurisdiction to
• I do not, therefore, think it expedient further to consider this branch of the question, nor to consider what ought to have been the determination of the learned judge of the superior court on the application to grant the injunction. Having been granted in a case of which I conceive that court had jurisdiction, it must, for the purposes of this proceeding, be deemed at all events a valid exercise of power, and as such entitled to obedience.
The remaining questions in the case, relating to the proceedings upon the attachment, involve, to a considerable extent, matters resting in the discretion of the court below, and which, presenting no question of law, are not in any view of the case reviewable by us. Such are the differences in punishment inflicted upon the different persons proceeded against, depending upon the view of the court below, as to the more or less aggravated character of the contempt of which they had respectively been found guilty.
Whether a failure to serve a copy of the affidavit on which the injunction was granted, will in any case render the injunction entirely inoperative, under the 220th section of the Code, which says: “A copy of' the affidavit must be served with the injunction,” but does not point out the consequences of not serving the copy, is not necessary to be determined in this case. Here, there has been a technical.
In administering the law in respect to the violation of injunctions, the court of chancery never lost sight of the principle that it was the disobedience to the order of the court which constituted- the contempt, and, therefore, although it required of the party availing himself of its order, a substantial compliance with the rules of practice upon the subject, it would not usually allow the effect of its orders to be wholly lost, when the party sought to be bound by the order had actual knowledge, or notice of its existence, although there might have occurred some slip in the formal method of bringing it home to him. (Hull v. Thomas, 3 Edw. Ch. R., 236; People v. Brower, 4 Paige, 405; McNeil v. Gurratt, 1 Cr. & Phil., 98.)
In respect to the manner of proceeding against the defendants, I see no error on the part of the court below. Under the provisions of the Revised Statutes (pan 3, ch. 8, tit. 13, § 1, subd. 3), every court of record has power to punish, by fine and imprisonment, or either, any neglect or .violation of duty, or any misconduct, by which the rights or remedies of a party in a cause or matter depending in such court may be defeated, impaired, impeded or prejudiced, in the following cases (among others): “ 3. Parties to suits, attorneys-, counselors, solicitors and all other persons, for the non-payment of any sum of money ordered by such court to be paid, in cases where by law execution cannot be awarded for the collection of such sum; and for any other disobedience to any lawful order, decree or process of such court.” “ 8. All other cases where attachments and proceedings, as for con-tempts, have been usually adopted and practiced in courts of record, to enforce the civil remedies of any party to a suit in such court, or to protect the rights of any such party.” Under each of these provisions the case of the defendant may clearly be included The court has determined as mat
Having come to the conclusion that the determination below was correct, we do not think it necessary to express 'any opinion upon the preliminary question, as to the right of appeal from the special to the general term.
The whole court concurred.
Judgment affirmed.