A Treatise on Equity Jurisprudence; As Administered in the United States of America Adapted for All the States, and to the Union of Legal and Equitable Remedies Under the Reformed Procedure Volume 1 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1918 edition. Excerpt: ... each claim involving a separate and distinct issue as to the character and amount of the claimant's injury. "A court of equity cannot exercise its jurisdiction... in cases where the 265. In Cases of Illegal Taxes and Public Burdens.--I pass to cases concerning local assessments, general taxes, and public debts or burdens. The line of decisions has already been mentioned, where, upon an equity suit brought in most instances by one proprietor, to restrain or to set aside some illegal assessment or tax which imposed a lien or liability upon the plaintiff and others in the same position, the court has held that it would exercise its jurisdiction and grant the relief only where such judicial action company, which by its comprehensive nature produced the same injury upon the land of each proprietor. On the contrary, the company committed a separate and wholly independent trespass upon the land of each by itself, and these trespasses were not simply distinct in contemplation of law, but they were different in their form, nature, and extent. It necessarily follows, therefore, that there was not among the plaintiffs even any community of interest in the relief sought, nor in the questions at issue, plaintiff invoking such jurisdiction has not any prior existing cause of action" or defense: Ante, 250, and note (b). It appears (see end of opinion) that the complainant did not distinctly aver its absence of liability to the numerous claimants. "Nothing short of a specific statement of facts establishing, without aid of presumptions, the absolute non-liability of appellant to any of the appellees in any event, can be accepted as a basis upon which to invoke equitable action." This disposes of the case; and the general...