Gray v. Rothschild

The plaintiffs consist of seven different firms, who sold goods at different times to the defendants Charles M. Rothschild and Jacob N. Rothschild, who were copartners carrying on business in the city of New York under the name of Charles M. Rothschild & Co. It was alleged in support of their right to maintain a joint action against the purchasers of the goods, together with Jacob N. Rothschild and Abraham Rothschild, that the goods had been obtained by means of false representations, and that the purchasers, together with the two other defendants, had entered into a conspiracy under which these goods and others were to be purchased on credit and the firm of Charles N. Rothschild & Co., were to defraud the vendors out of the purchase prices, by removing, secreting and disposing of the goods, and that this conspiracy had been carried into execution. The action was not for the recovery of the goods themselves, ora rescission of the sales made, but for the recovery of damages amounting to the aggregate sum owing to the several firms joined as plaintiffs for the sale of their goods and merchandise. The defendants demurred to the complaint, alleging in support of the demurrer a misjoinder of plaintiffs ; that causes to action had been improperly united, and that the complaint did not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action. And the court at the trial sustained the demurrer on the ground of a misjoinder of parties, and that several causes of action were improperly united in the complaint.

The accuracy of this decision has been resisted by the

But this section of the Code does not support the case, as the plaintiffs disclose it by their complaint for each one of the firms in selling their goods, if the facts have been correctly set forth in the complaint, is entitled to maintain a separate action for damages against the purchasers and the other two persons implicated in the conspiracy, and that is all the relief, as the facts have been presented which, either one of the firms would be entitled to obtain. There is no joint subject of action in this case, neither can joint judgment be recovered in the action under the authority of this section, but each one of the firms have a separate and distinct cause of action against the defendants, upon which, in case of a recovery, a separate judgment would necessarily be entered. The subject of the action is the recovery of the damages sustained by each one of the firms in the sale of their own goods. Each sale was distinct from all the others and made upon fraudulent representations inducing such sale. There was no concurrent or joint action by the several firms whose members have been joined as plaintiffs in the sales of their respective goods, but each firm proceeded and transacted the business for itself. And for the value or price of its goods, if the facts are truthfully alleged in the complaint, each firm is entitled to a separate and distinct recovery. And no facts are alleged in the case in any form which would secure to the plaintiffs just relief by way of a joint judgment. The case by no construction which can be placed upon this section of the Code is in such a condition as to be maintained by these several firms as the plaint - iffs in one action, and no other provision of the Code has gone so far as to permit actions for damages to be prose - cuted and sustained in this form.

Authorities have been assiduously collected and cited which are relied upon as sustaining so broad a rule of prac ■ tice, as to permit this action to be sustained in its present form, in behalf of all these different firms. They are cases which have arisen in courts of equity, allowing actions to be maintained by persons severally interested in the subject-matter of the action and affecting all alike.

In that class of cases an action is allowed to be maintained by all parties interested, in obtaining the same relief, but they have no application to this action, for these different firms are not entitled to any joint or final relief by way of a single judgment; what they are entitled to, if

Eermitted no greater extension of the rule than has already een mentioned. In Ireland v. City of Rochester ( 51 Barb., 415 ), Scofield v. City of Lansing ( 17 Mich., 437 ) and Kennedy v. City of Troy ( 14 Hun, 308 ) the actions were for relief affecting a subject-matter in which all the plaintiffs were interested in obtaining a single preventive judgment. And to avoid a multiplicity of suits, as but one object was to be attained, they were allowed to join in securing the relief necessary for the protection of their several interests. The subject-matter was entirely distinct and separate from such an action as this, in which only damages are claimed by each of the firm.

In Smith v. Schulting ( 14 Hun, 52 ), the complaint was sustained against a demurrer upon the ground that it was to be inferred, not only that the plaintiffs were severally entitled to the same common relief against the same instrument, but that the release itself had been obtained from them by joint false representations. And there the suit was maintained only so far as to avoid the release. And in Loomis v. Brown ( 16 Barb., 325 ), the undertaking on which the action was brought had been jointly entered into with and for the benefit of the persons who had joined as plaintiffs in the action. While in Brinkerhoff v. Brown ( 6 Johns. Ch., 139 ), the decision proceeded no further than

The case of Goodnight v. Goar ( 30 Ind., 418 ), is an authority directly against the plaintiff’s action, for there it was held that a joint action on an agreement by several persons to pay a proportionate part of what either should pay for a substitute, in case either should be drafted, could not be maintained. But that the suit for contribution must be maintained against each person separately who had bound himself by the agreement. The case of Wood v. Perry ( 1 Barb., 114 ), is likewise opposed to the right of the plaintiffs to maintain this action jointly, and so is that of Emery v. Erskine ( 66 Barb., 9 ). And also Howell v. City of Buffalo (2 Abb. Court of Appeals, 412).

This decision has been assailed by the counsel for the plaintiffs as erroneously made, but it has the support of the general principle already mentioned, observed and enforced in courts of equity, that persons having distinct and independent claims to relief, cannot, unless the cáse is a peculiar one, join in the prosecution of an action. There the property of the several plaintiffs had been sold for the non-payment of separate amounts assessed for an improvement. The object of the action was to restrain the execution and delivery by the city of certificates of sale upon the allegation that the assessments "were unlawful. The certificates when issued would affect only the property of each different owner. They would have no joint effect upon any of the property. And it was held by the court chiefly for that reason, that the action could not be maintained, each plaintiff having only a separate and distinct right of action for relief in which the others were in no manner interested or identified. In all the cases containing any reference whatever to separate and distinct claims for damages, the decisions have been guarded by the conclusion previously stated, that a joint action by several and distinct parties, claiming several and distinct damages, cannot be maintained. Any other rule would be attended with so much perplexity, intricacy and confusion at the trial as to render the jury before which the action must necessarily be tried, next to incapable of deciding and disposing of it. If this action could proceed to trial, seven different causes of action would be presented for the hearing and decision of the jury, and it would be extremely difficult for them to

The demurrer was properly sustained at the trial, and both the judgment and order should be affirmed.

And as the action cannot be maintained in the form in which it has been stated it follows that the order of arrest issued in it was rightly vacated. No suggestion appears to have been made either upon the trial of the demurrer, or the hearing of the motion, that the auction might be dismissed as to all the plaintiffs except one of the different firms and then proceed as its own suit. The inference on the contrary to be deduced from wffiat appears to have transpired, is that the plaintiffs proposed to maintain the action as it has been brought, or to submit it to its entire failure. If that had not been the disposition of the counsel then it should have been suggested to the court, in the event that a joint action could not be maintained, that the complaint should be dismissed as to all the plaintiffs except , one of the firms. And if that had been done the court would undoubtedly have followed that suggestion, but having omitted to make it upon the trial, or the hearing of the motion the plaintiffs are not now, for the first time, at liberty to question the judgment, or the order by proposing that such a disposition of the action may still be made. In fact there has been at no time during the hearing of the appeals, or since then, any suggestion whatever that in case of the plaintiffs incapacity to maintain the action as it has already been brought, that they would consent to its being retained as a suit in favor of either one of these firms. But if there had been it would come too late, the time for making it, being on the first hearing.

The order, therefore, as well as the judgment and order on the demurrer, should be affirmed, with the usual costs and disbursements, to the defendants.

Van Brunt, P. J., and Brady, J., concur.